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India To Allow Commercial Mining Of Coal

Opening up India’s coal sector to competition, the Narendra Modi-government has reportedly decided to allow commercial mining — a right currently enjoyed by only Coal India (CIL) — by other state-owned entities such as NMDC, the largest iron ore producer and exporter, producing about 30 million tons a year.

“We will be allotting mines to the state entities in the coming days for commercial mining of coal,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said on Sunday at a Coal Consumers’ Association of India-organized interactive session.”

Swarup said that the government would give commercial mining rights to all state entities, both central and state PSUs initially before giving rights to private players. The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015, recently passed in Parliament, has enabling provisions for commercial mining and sale of coal by even private players.

He also said that the government will finalize the policy paper to bring in transparency in offering fuel ‘linkages’ for assured supply from Coal India by June 30.

The auction and allotment of 67 coal blocks so far has unlocked a total value of nearly Rs. 400,000 crore. Out of 67 blocks auctioned or allotted, a total benefit of Rs. 3,35,000 crore is for states and another Rs. 69,000 crore will be unlocked by way of tariff benefit to the consumers.

Another 16 blocks will be put up for auction by the third week of April, of which 11 will be for the power sector and the rest for the non-regulated sector.

Swarup said that the process for auction and allotment of the entire lot of 204 coal blocks that the government has taken up under the Supreme Court order will be completed by March 2016 in a transparent manner.
Source: RTT News