The short answer
Every tonne of stone leaving a quarry must be covered by royalty paid to the state and by a transit pass generated online for that vehicle and that trip. Rajasthan issues an e-Rawanna, Uttar Pradesh an eMM-11, Madhya Pradesh a transit pass through its e-Khanij portal, Maharashtra one through Mahakhanij, and Gujarat a royalty pass through ILMS. A truck carrying stone without a valid pass is treated as carrying illegally mined mineral.
On a highway package the stone is rarely questioned. The paper that travels with it is questioned constantly: at check posts, by the employer's engineer at every bill, and by the mining department at the end. A contractor who cannot show where each tonne came from pays for it twice.
01Royalty
Stone in the ground belongs to the state. Royalty is the price of taking it, charged per tonne or per cubic metre at a rate the state notifies and revises. It is payable by whoever holds the lease or permit. Alongside it most states collect a contribution to the district mineral foundation, and some add further fees.
Who bears it commercially is a matter of contract. Where a specialist firm crushes on a client's lease, the royalty normally stays with the client as lease holder. Where finished stone is bought from a firm working its own lease, royalty is inside the price or shown as a line on the invoice. The build-up is in aggregate rate per tonne delivered.
02The transit pass
A transit pass is the proof, carried in the truck, that the load came from a lawful source and that royalty is accounted for. It is generated on the state's portal by the lease holder for each trip. Stock and royalty balance are debited as passes are issued, so a quarry cannot dispatch more than it has paid for.
| State | System | Document |
|---|---|---|
| Rajasthan | Department of Mines and Geology online system | e-Rawanna, and an e-transit pass for onward movement |
| Uttar Pradesh | Mine Mitra portal | eMM-11, and an ISTP for mineral entering from another state |
| Madhya Pradesh | e-Khanij portal | Electronic transit pass |
| Maharashtra | Mahakhanij | Electronic transit pass |
| Gujarat | Integrated Lease Management System (ILMS) | Royalty pass and delivery challan |
Portals are revised from time to time. Maharashtra moved to a new version of Mahakhanij in 2026. Check the current procedure with the district mining office.
03What a pass states
- The lease or permit the mineral came from.
- The mineral and its quantity.
- The vehicle registration number.
- The destination.
- The date and time of issue, and the period for which it is valid.
Each of those is a way to be caught out. A load heavier than the quantity on the pass is unaccounted mineral. A truck stopped after the validity has run out, because of a breakdown or a queue, is exposed unless the delay was recorded. A pass for one vehicle used on another is invalid. Weighbridge and pass should agree, which is one more reason to weigh every load: see weighbridge slips.
04Crossing a state line
Stone quarried in one state and delivered in another needs to satisfy both. The originating state's pass covers the mineral as far as the border. The receiving state may require its own inter-state transit pass, obtained before the truck enters, sometimes with a fee. On a package close to a border this is routine. On the first load it is a truck held at a check post for a day.
05What the employer will ask for
Many highway and public works contracts require proof that royalty has been paid on the materials used. In practice the employer either deducts royalty from running bills until passes are produced, or asks for a clearance certificate from the mining department before the final bill is released. Either way, the passes for stone used on the job have to be collected as the work goes on. Reconstructing three years of them at the end is not possible.
06A routine that works
- One person owns the royalty account and the pass log, by name.
- Royalty is topped up before the balance runs out, not after dispatch has stopped.
- Every load leaves with a weighbridge slip and a pass whose quantities agree.
- The receiving site files the pass with the slip, the same day.
- Monthly, the passes are totalled against the tonnes billed and the tonnes laid.
- Monthly returns go to the mining department on time, whether or not anyone is asking.
07GST on stone and on royalty
Crushed stone carries GST at 5 per cent. Whether GST is separately payable on the royalty, under reverse charge, is the tax department's position and remains before the courts. That is a question for a tax adviser and not for a quarry manager.