The Punjab bureaucracy is tricking the Chief Minister into accepting that the province has no marble wealth and auctioning marble deposits as limestone quarries to make dirty buck through commission from buyers.



When asked why this blatant fraud goes on after the demonstration by marble investors that technically Punjab marble was of high-value, Pakistan Stone Development Company Director Punjab Farakh Munir told The News that the stone being excavated in certain parts of Punjab is technically marble as it is Dimension Stone and it is cut and polished accordingly.But the government deems it not so high value and is taking action only to prevent its use as low-value raw material for crushing.



The investors say they need recognition of Punjab marble as high-value marble to avail themselves of the official facilities available for the promotion of the marble industry. If investors are excavating marble and govt says it is limestone how would they get low-interest loans under Export Finance Scheme to procure machinery and process the raw material for exports and avail duty drawbacks on export shipments and earn foreign exchange for the country?



It is feared that the marble bonanza in Punjab is going to a select few well connected persons that have managed to butt out the real stakeholders of marble sector.The ministry of Industries & Production has an ongoing project of developing marble and granite sector at an estimated cost of about Rs3 billion of which more than Rs2 billions has already been utilised through Pakistan Stone Development Corporation an organization of the MoIP.



In order to train the quarry workers in use of modern techniques and equipment the Pakistan Stone Development Corporation (PSDC) is launching a project to create model marble and granite quarries in all the provinces.



The PSDC is also creating marble cities in all the provinces to turn the stone industry into a major industrial activity in the country for a significant boost to exports-earned foreign exchange.



The federal government has granted exemptions from duties and taxes on import of marble mining machinery and the GST has been removed from sales of marble.The federal government also allowed sweeping income tax exemption for 5 years on all mining projects.



The marble and granite industry is essentially small-business (SME) activity and offers jobs at large scales.The PASDEC has procured the requisite machinery for renting out to the quarry owners on easy terms, which encourages investment in the SME sectors.



For the last one year marble mined from Mianwali, the Salt Range areas of Punjab province has penetrated the market at Rawalpindi and Islamabad and has now almost replaced such marble from Balochistan.



However, the Punjab Government has issued an executive order to declare that the province of Punjab has no marble and has persistently refused to issue mineral titles to the applicants that invest in the industry.



On December 18 and January 18-19 the Punjab government surprisingly announced the auction of huge deposits of marble under cover of limestone in violation of the notified bylaws and without issuing proper prospecting licenses and leases. The Punjab Mining Concession Rules 2002 disallow such exercise.