New mining bill to fill gaps in the sector: MoMP

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) on Sunday said the enforcement of a new mining bill would resolve problems and fill gabs in the sector.

Abdul Qadir Mutfa, MoMP spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the new legislation had been prepared based on the new mining law and sent to the Ministry of Justice for approval. The new mining law was approved in October, 2018.

Mutfa said the new bill covered issues in financial, technical, environmental, health areas and prevented substandard mining.

He said the bill was prepared in order to respond to general rules of the mining law, their enforcement and filling gaps in previous bill and extractive industry of the country.

With implementation of this bill, most of the problems facing the mining area would be resolved and it would also help bring about more transparency in the bidding process, he said.

In addition to that, bidding related documents of mining would be also shared with the media and people for more transparency, said Mutfa, adding special formats of bidding for interested companies were also considered in the bill.

Based on this bill, companies that extract mines with explosives would be punished, he added.

Aman Reyazat, spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, said that Dari version of the bill had reached the ministry but it was not final.

He said the bill was not yet translated into Pashto and there were some other small problems in the measure and it was rejected by the Justice Ministry’s committee of laws.

He said the bill would be discussed again next Wednesday. The draft bill after being approved by the committee of laws would be sent to the Cabinet for final approval.

According to MoMP, 1,400 mining areas are identified in different parts of the country.

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