The Meghalaya cabinet today approved giving more time to mining lease holders to pay the remaining 50 per cent of stamp duty, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma informed.
The miners’ interpretation of the rules led them to believe that members of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes need only pay 50 per cent of the stamp duty but a court ruling disabused them of this notion.
“We are allowing them to pay half (of the duty) immediately and the rest by March 31,” Sangma said after the cabinet meeting.
The treasury should net another Rs 27 crore because of this.
Sangma also informed that the cabinet gave its approval to amend the Meghalaya Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management Act 2006 in order to allow the state to borrow up to 5 per cent of the state’s GDP. This limit was initially set at 3 per cent, but the central government allowed for a revision upwards due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The cabinet also approved the appointment of junior engineers under Grade 1, under 3F, for the Public Health Engineering Department.
Sangma said that the PHE Department had conducted interviews and around 45 junior engineers need to be appointed, so this was done under 3F as there is an urgency to have additional manpower for the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission.
Finally, the cabinet also formalized the reduction of taxes for petrol and diesel and approved the new rates of tax for the same which had been announced yesterday
