Truckers in the State under the banner of Meghalaya Joint Action Committee (MJAC) have alleged that there was huge leakage of revenues in the State due to absence of weighbridges en-route the cement plants in East Jaintia Hills.
The MJAC revealed this in a letter sent to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Transport Department Sniawbhalang Dhar today.
In the letter, MJAC chairman Biangshuwa Shylla and general secretary Enrico D. Pasi said that they could no longer remain mere spectators on the matter and that is why they decided to bring the matter to the notice of the State government.
It also said 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 East Jaintia Hills but the State government is turning blind eyes to revenue leakage from minerals supplied to cement industries in the district.
“The absence of revenue checkpoints or weighbridges 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 limestone supplied by local suppliers to cement factories are not taxed nor are any accounts kept by any government authorities,” the MJAC said.
“Meghalaya 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,” it added.
The MJAC also said that around 800 limestone laden trucks and 130 coal laden trucks enter the cement factories located in East Jaintia Hills daily and all these trucks are highly overloaded with almost three times the permissible weights.
Regarding the loss of revenue from coal supplied to cement factories in East Jaintia Hills, the MJAC said, “If one has to calculate at 25 metric tons of coal per truck per day, it will come to around 1,186,250 metric tons of coal yearly. This means that the State government and Central government are losing that much taxes and royalty yearly from coal supplied to cement factories only in East Jaintia Hills. Again if one has to calculate at 30 metric tons of limestone per truck per day at 365 days a year it comes out to be 8,760,000 metric tons annually.”
According to the MJAC, if such revenue is properly tapped, the State will be able to construct at least 100 kilometres of good roads every year in East Jaintia Hills.
It also said that plugging revenue leakage from minerals supplied to cement industries will enable the government to cut tax the rates of fuels like petrol and diesel.
The MJAC asked the State government to set up revenue checkpoints and weighbridges at each and every cement factory for trucks supplying raw material to the factories.
