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The Union environment ministry's decision to charge a levy for future mining at current rates for destruction of forests is likely to cause a substantial loss of potential revenue for the government.The levy is charged from any industry or project that requires forest land and accumulates in the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund. The fund has collected over Rs 36,000 crore and the government intends to use a large part of it to meet its afforestation target of 10 million hectare under the Green India Mission.Miners are charged between Rs 4.38 lakh and Rs 10.43 lakh per hectare of forest land but the government has in principle accepted a report that recommends revising the rates to between Rs 5.65 lakh and Rs 55.55 lakh per hectare.The levy is imposed when a miner seeks clearance under the Forest Conservation Act to use forest land. Earlier, miners used to pay the levy for the land they planned to mine and not the total area under the mining lease. But on April 1 the environment ministry issued a circular asking all miners with forest clearances to deposit the levy for the full area under the lease.