Shillong, May 24: The Chairman Mr. Biangshuwa Shylla and General Secretary Mr. Enrico D Pasi of the Meghalaya Joint Action Committee has written to the Chief Minister Mr. Conrad K Sangma and Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sniawgbhalang pointing out about the lealkage of revenue and absence of Checkpoints or Weighbridge en-route the Cement plants in East Jaintia Hills District, Meghalaya.
In the letter they have stated that, It is very painful to remain mere spectators if they fail to bring the matter to light and also to your notice. The Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister they might not be aware of the fact that there are several Cement Factories in East Jaintia Hills which are relying solely upon the raw materials mined and collected from various parts of the district in Jaintia Hills.
The Absence of Revenue Checkpoints or weighbridge en-route the Cement Factories to check mineral laden trucks supplying raw materials to the factories have given huge undue benefits to those factories. Coal and lime stones supplied by local suppliers to Cement factories are not taxed nor are any accounts kept by any government authorities.
The MJAC the state is an economically backward state and is neither self sufficient in any respect. Failure on the part of the government to tap the revenue leakage will only lead to deteriorating living conditions of our people and further lack of proper infrastructure including basic Healthcare and Educational System.
Proper tapping of Revenue leakage from natural resources and royalty should be collected from minerals supplied to these factories and Revenue Checkpoints and weighbridge should be set up at each and every Factory for those trucks supplying raw material to the factories.
The MJAC stated that an approximate estimate of 800 Limestone laden trucks and 130 Coal laden trucks are entering Cement Industries daily. All these trucks are highly overloaded with almost three times the permissible weights. If one has to calculate at 25MT of Coal per truck per day, it will come to round about One Million One Hundred Eighty Six Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty Metric Tonnes of Coal yearly.
This means that State Government and Central Government are losing that much taxes and Royalty yearly from Coal supplied to Cement Factories only in East Jaintia Hills District. Again if one has to calculate at 3OMT of Limestone per truck per day at 365 days a year it comes out Eight Million Seven Hundred Sixty Thousand Metric Tonnes annually.
Similarly this wouldmean that State Government and Central Government are losing that much Taxes and Royalty yearly from Limestone supplied to Cement Factories only in East Jaintia Hills District. From such leaked income if properly tapped, the state will be able to construct at least 100Kms of good roads every year in East Jaintia Hills District.
The government is turning blind eyes to both revenue leakage from minerals supplied to Cement Industries and also in bringing down the fuel cost in the state. Tapping of revenue leakage from Minerals supplied to Cement Industries will enable the government to cut tax rates of fuels like petrol and diesels etc.
