New Delhi: Following the success of the previous fiscal year, an incentive mechanism on mining sector reforms with a Rs 5,000 crore outlay has been incorporated in the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) for FY 2026-27, the Ministry of Mines said on Friday.
The operational guidelines for this component of the scheme have been issued recently by the ministry and constitute a significant step to encourage mining sector reforms in states, according to a ministry statement.
The objective of this SASCI scheme component is to facilitate and expedite mine operationalisation, increase mineral production, enhance revenue collection by states from the mining sector, and improve overall governance of the mining sector. The Scheme incentive is to be provided to states and UTs (with legislature) under three reform areas.
The first involves integration of the state with the Unified Mining Portal of the Ministry of Mines for mine operationalisation, constitution of a Pre-Auction Committee to actively resolve land scheduling issues, constitution of a state-level Coordination Committee for regular monitoring of operationalisation of mines, annual auction calendar for major minerals & adherence to the same to the extent possible, and adoption of technology-based measures to prevent or detect grade misclassification of mineral ore. A state has to undertake all the above five reform actions by December 15, 2026, upon which it will be eligible for an incentive of Rs 100 crore.
The second entails mine operationalisation through incentivising states for successful auctioning of major mineral blocks with pre-embedded clearances (such as forest, environment, land, etc.) in FY 2026-27 upto December 31, 2026 (Rs 20 crore per block successfully auctioned, with an upper cap of Rs 200 crore per state) and operationalisation (i.e. commencement of production and dispatch) during FY 2026-27 (up to December 31, 2026) at least 10 per cent of the major mineral blocks successfully auctioned till March 31, 2026 (Rs 250 crore per state).
The third involves SMRI-based reforms, which include rewarding the top three states in each of the three categories A, B, and C under the State Mining Readiness Index (SMRI) 2026-27, to be released by the Ministry of Mines (Rs 100 crore, Rs 75 crore, and Rs 50 crore for securing 1st, 2nd and 3rd position under each category.
(IANS)
