Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Saturday said Adani Enterprises will not get an exemption or a discounted rate on royalties it owes the government to undertake its Carmichael coal mine project in Australia, Reuters reported. The Indian firm had decided to put the project on hold until there was more clarity on royalties it needed to pay.
“Under this new policy, the Adani Carmichael mine will pay every cent of royalties in full. There will be no royalty holiday for the Adani Carmichael mine,” Palaszczuk said in a statement on Saturday. The firm’s chief executive officer in Australia, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, declined to comment, Bloomberg reported.
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said the company would be provided with an option to delay the payment if it ensured that a security amount and interest was paid. The state government ruled out the use of government funds to exempt the company from paying its dues.
The project was first proposed in 2010. Since then, several environmental activists have raised concerns about its impact on the local ecosystem, including the Great Barrier Reef. In March, Gautam Adani, the chairman of the company, said it could start mining coal in 2020. However, that was before the Westpac Banking Corp stopped funding the project in April citing a new policy on coal emissions.
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