Sand mining: ‘State to earn Rs 1K cr revenue this fiscal’

Kolkata: The state government is expecting to get a revenue of Rs 1000 crore in the 2023-24 fiscal through the robust online mechanism of sand mining that was introduced by the Mamata Banerjee government in 2021.

In July 2021, the state brought out a notification regarding the new ‘Sand Mining Policy’ to prevent damage to the riverine ecology and to take stringent action against black marketing and hoarding of sand.

The revenue from sand mining was about Rs 150 crore per annum before the introduction of the new sand mining policy.

“The online mechanism of sand mining coupled with increased vigilance for excavation and sale of sand witnessed a gradual increase in revenue earning through auction premium, royalty and cess collected for transportation of the building material. We expect to garner Rs 1000 crore as state revenue from sand mining by the end of the financial year 2023-24,” a senior Nabanna official said.

Earlier the entire process of allotting sand banks and monitoring the transportation of the building material used to be done manually and there was ample scope for pilferage.

“With the introduction of the new Sand Mining Policy that empowered the West Bengal Mineral Development and Trading Corporation (WBMDTCL) as the monitoring authority the state has been able to curb pilferage to a reasonable extent. Most importantly, this is helping common people to get sand at the right price,” a senior official of WBMDTCL said.

Currently, through a ‘scientific, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible process’, all lessees have been provided with a login ID and password and an e-challan is generated as soon as the payment is done. The physical process was time-consuming. Moreover, lessees no longer need to visit several offices to get the nod for the transportation of sand.

The necessary integration has been made so that the rail also has an idea of the material being transported and keeps track accordingly.

The enforcement mechanism has also been strengthened with officers of enforcement agencies getting access to the permit details just by scanning the QR code on the road challan which controls the illegal sale of sand.