Amid unearthing of a series of scandals involving huge losses to the exchequer in allocation of natural resources like spectrum, land and minerals, a high level government panel today stressed the need for a centralised database of such resources to maximise revenues.

The panel, headed by former Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla, was constituted by the Cabinet Secretariat as per the directions of the GoM headed by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to tackle corruption in such allocations.

"This database should be accessible to all government departments for expediting clearances without overlapping and delay... this sort of data base shall ensure co-ordination among different Ministries/ Departments and shall obviate many of the legal disputes pending in various courts of law," an official statement said here today.

Committee on Open and Competitive Mechanism for Allocation, Pricing and Utilisation of Natural Resources also decided today that its ambit will be restricted to natural resources under the control of Central Government.

"These will include land, water, minerals (including petroleum products like oil and gas) and radio frequency (spectrum)," the statement said.

It will consider multiple issues like public welfare, revenue maximization, sectoral precedents etc and the policies, therefore, would be tailored differently, depending upon the context of each sector.

After documenting different approaches in resource allocations followed by different departments, the committee will "devise a policy matrix to suggest the changes required in the extant methodology," and submit its report in four weeks, it said.

The committee members include Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Secretary, Environment and Forests, Secretary, Coal, Secretary, Telecommunications, Secretary, Defence; Secretary, Mines, Secretary, Water Resources; Secretary and Land Resources etc besides representatives from various industry bodies.