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The state steel and mines department has abandoned the proposal to canalise the iron ore trade via its mining arm Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and has, instead, decided to set up a special committee to carry out the task in association with MSTC Ltd.
The committee will also take over charge of chrome ore e-auction currently conducted by OMC, said a government source.
As per the original proposal, government was contemplating to conduct online auction of minerals by designating OMC as the nodal agency.
"However, the latest government position is that a special committee will be set up under the steel and mines department, which will take care of e-auction," said a government source.
According to current practices, steel manufacturers procure raw material from private miners at a negotiated price and also buy iron ore sold by OMC, which announces the ore rates every quarter.
The revised proposal is likely to take months for implementation as it would be hard for the department to get the cabinet nod on the draft policy at this time of the year, especially when the state machinery is busy in launching people-friendly schemes ahead of polls in 2014. Hence, the state may miss the April deadline to launch mineral e-auction as scheduled earlier, sources said.
The online auction conducting agency, MSTC Ltd said, it is ready with all necessary infrastructure and is waiting for the government nod.
"As of now, we have all necessary infrastructure ready to conduct the e-auction via our Kolkata office. We are awaiting government order to go ahead," said an official of MSTC. In November last year, the state government had decided to sell entire iron ore and manganese produced in the state through online auction route from April 2013 by employing state-run miner Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) as the canalising agent in order to address the issue of raw material supply problems of domestic steel units.
It had even constituted a committee comprising of cabinet ministers and headed by finance minister to chalk out the modalities of the trading.
The committee, whose term ends in April, is yet to give its recommendation to the state government for coming up with a notification for sale of minerals through on line platform. As the state assembly session will end on Apr 6, it is unlikely that the proposal will come before May.
Currently, central government PSU, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) conducts e-auction of iron ore in Karnataka following the Supreme Court direction. A couple of private miners are also offering the ore via MSTC in Karnataka. Similarly, MOIL, another Central government PSU, also offers manganese ore via e-auction.
