Increasing revenue: Miners displeased with delay in legislation

Want K-P mineral development and regulation act to go through

PESHAWAR: Mine owners and lease holders have expressed concern over the delay in enactment of the proposed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Mineral Development and Regulation Act 2016, and urged the government to remove all hurdles in the path of the legislation, to increase revenue in the mining sector.

Addressing a news conference at the press club here on Thursday, Frontier Mine Owners Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (FMOA-KP), Sherbandi Khan Marwat said that the provincial government has prepared the mineral act with consultations of the relevant stakeholders.

Currently, he informed that the provincial government has fetched Rs700 million revenue from the sector.

Accompanied by the association’s general secretary Haji Abdul Jalil and vice president Haji Abdul Rasheed, along with mine owners and lease holders, he said the mining community is facing a host of problems, due to delay in enactment of the proposed K-P Mineral Development Act.

Despite the commitment, he lamented that the government has not taken steps to decrease the rate of mining machinery under rent policy and provision to explosive licence.

Sherbandi said the provincial mineral development department is taking measures to improve rules and regulations, while some institutions and influential political figures were creating hurdles in this regard. This is causing loss of millions of rupees to the sector, besides rendering more than 500 workers jobless, added the official. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.

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