The recently concluded monsoon session of Parliament passed the Mines and Minerals Development (Amendment) Bill, which takes away the powers of states to impose levies on major minerals.

The bill, which restricts states from imposing additional, retrospective and unpredictable taxes was passed in both houses of Parliament without any substantive discussion.

The law was primarily aimed to negate the impact of the July 25, 2024, Supreme Court judgement that allowed states to impose mineral tax and recover arrears retrospectively since April 1, 2005. It is estimated that the SC ruling would have allowed the states to recover arrears worth ₹1.5 to ₹2 lakh crore from major mining companies retrospectively.

In August 2024, the Jharkhand government became the first state to enforce the SC Constitution bench order by passing a tax, giving itself the right to impose different kinds of levies on mined minerals in the state.

The Jharkhand government projected that it would generate ₹13,215 crore from the additional levies on minerals and it would amount to 84.9% of the non-tax revenue of the state in its budget for 2026-27,

Around ₹9,000 crore of this revenue was designated to fund Jharkhand’s flagship Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana........

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