the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday made a pitch with the Centre for a special mining package and exemption of duty on high-grade iron ore with 60% and above Fe content which is exported from Goa.
Sawant made these demands among some others at the pre-Budget consultation organised by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with finance ministers of States and Union Territories which he attended in Delhi on Friday along with Goa’s Chief Secretary Parimal Rai.
Speaking at the meeting Sawant, who also holds the finance portfolio, said since the Goa economy was hit by the 2018 Supreme Court ban on mining the Centre should consider a special financial package.
He also urged for grants to foot the cost of land acquisition to build an expressway connecting the National Highway to the under-construction Mopa International airport.
Sawant also pitched for support from the Centre to expand the tourism industry’s footprint to the eastern hinterland of Goa. The chief minister mentioned these pleas made by him at the Consultation in a post on his official handle on social networking site Twitter.
“Attended the pre-Budget consultation meeting chaired by Union Minister of Finance Smt @nsitharaman. Sought mining package, support for hinterland tourism, land acquisition package for expressway from NH66 to Mopa airport, exemption of export duty for high grade ore,” the tweet by Sawant after attending the meeting said.
Sanquelim from where
Sawant hails and also represents in the Goa legislative assembly, is already on record that restarting mining will be topmost on his government’s agenda. The mining package sought by him from the Centre, his office said will compensate the revenue losses the State suffered due to mining closure in the last fiscal.
The mining and tourism sectors between them have been estimated to be contributing almost half the Gross State Domestic Product for long. In the last fiscal, however, both these sectors have been under stress, the former because of the Supreme Court ban since March 2018 and the latter due to a slump in footfalls.
The support sought from the Centre to expand the tourism industry to the picturesque hinterland nestled in the Western Ghats and is a biodiversity hotspot Sawant said could act as the much needed catalyst to turnaround the State’s economy.
