The Council of Common Interests (CCI) has approved the National Mineral Policy of 2012, forwarded by the Petroleum Ministry in August this year. Sources said here on Friday that the CCI meeting held the other day had finally approved the Mineral Policy. Sources added that after 17 years, the government had finalised the mineral policy, which will empower the federating units to allocate mineral leases to investors.
They said that the new policy increased the share of royalty by 12 per cent. Similarly, a decision to increase royalty by 5 per cent had also been taken on the discovery of gold and precious stones while two per cent increase in royalty of precious metals had also been made. It was also decided to raise the share of royalty on basic metals by three per cent, while royalty on coal was increased by one percent.
However, the federal government retained the control of offshore and Azad Kashmir mine reserves along with mine reserves of Federal Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Gilgat-Baltistan. Sources said that the policy also called for setting up Mineral Investment Facilitation Authorities (MIFAs) at federal and provincial levels. At the provincial level, these will be mandatory bodies as provided in the Provincial Mining Concession Rules. The new Mineral Policy aims at achieving increased and sustainable revenue flow to provincial and federal governments.
About the constitutional position of minerals, the policy said that minerals other than oil, gas and nuclear materials in special areas (Fata, Giligit-Biltistan, Azad Kashmir and Islamabad Capital Territory) are a provincial subject under the Constitution.
Provincial governments are responsible for regulation, detailed exploration, development and safety concerns in mineral operations, whereas geological/geophysical survey and mapping, mineral identification, regional exploration, national and international co-ordination and formulation of national polices and plans are federal responsibilities.
In line with the constitutional framework, the federal and provincial governments jointly endorse the policy, which provides for appropriate institutional arrangements, a modern regulatory framework, internationally competitive fiscal and regulatory regime and a program to expand Pakistan's geological database, adding," The respective government may, by notification in the official Gazette, make rules for the grant of mineral concessions/titles in respect of any mineral including those underlying the ocean within the territorial waters or the continental shelf of Pakistan".
However, the provisions of the Policy clearly provide that the continued focus of all activities and decision making will be at the provincial level while the federation would provide requisite support and advice to the provinces to take up the challenges of achieving sustainable benefits from the development of non-renewable mineral resources. Similarly, all federating units of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan commit to the minerals ownership structure and legislation in Pakistan as defined in the constitution and the policy.
The policy further said that for achieving optimal benefits of mineral resources, the federal government, in close co-operation with provincial governments and other stakeholders, stands committed to achieve substantial input to the mineral sector by providing an investment-friendly regulatory regime. "The government...makes it a policy objective to further strengthen the capacity of the policy implementers to plan and implement the National Mineral Policy."
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