At least five coke factories in the State have provided documentary evidence regarding the source of coal that they obtained.
This was revealed during a meeting of the independent committee on extracted coal headed by Justice (Retd) B P Katakey held here today.
It may be mentioned that the committee had issued notices to 19 coke plants in the State to clarify the source from which they purchased the coal.
The coke plants which have been issued the notices are located in West Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills. While six of them have responded to the notice, others have asked for more time to reply.
Sources said that officials from the GST Department of the State government and officials of the Mining Department had carried out an exercise to verify the source of coal of the coke plants.
“Of the coke factories issued with the notice, about 5-6 of them have replied. The details given by them matched with the GST portal including back method calculating from the GST portal regarding payment of GST,” sources said.
“If you buy or sell coke you have to pay GST and then it automatically comes to the portal. So about five industries we have found their minimum production or their purchase and their production is matching and their source also of coal is okay. Out of these 16 about five are okay. For some others, the committee needs more clarification and some industries have asked for time to reply,” sources added.
Another agenda discussed at the meeting was on the auction of the remaining coal lying at different depots and which is conforming to the guidelines given by the State government to the High Court.
The Coal India Limited has been asked to auction the quantity of coal which is lying in the designated depots in East Jaintia Hills, West Khasi Hills, South Garo hills and South West Khasi hills.
The committee is hopeful that by the end of November the process will be finalised and a lifting order can be given to the successful bidders after they deposited the bid money.
As far as installation of the smart check gates to track the movement of minerals outside the State, the meeting was informed that some smart check gates have been installed and in some places, there was a problem in getting land.
The deputy commissioners have been asked to look into the land issue so that in the next few months the smart check gates could be installed along with the mineral tracking system and QR code system.
