The draft mining legislation will be placed before the Cabinet shortly, said the Mines Secretary, Mr S.Vijay Kumar.
He was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the 49th Meeting of the Central Geological Programming Board.
The Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act 2011 envisages benefit sharing mechanism for the industry with the project affected people.
A Group of Ministers recently approved the benefit sharing mechanism wherein coal companies will have to share 26 per cent of their profits and other mineral firms will have to pay an amount equivalent to the royalty to the proposed District Mineral Fund for the welfare of the displaced people, once the draft bill is made into law.
Stating that the legal vetting of the draft legislation has already done, Mr Vijay Kumar said a Cabinet note will be circulated shortly within a couple of days. “The window of opportunity to introduce the bill in the current session of Parliament is still open,’’ he added.
Industry bodies such as FIMI, CII and FICCI have opposed the proposed benefit sharing mechanism stating that it would result in heavy economic burden on the mining firms, which are already heavily taxed. The mining industry would have to incur an additional burden of around Rs 15,000 crore once the legislation is implemented.