Govt announces draft rules for e-auction of coal blocks

Coal Secretary Anil Swarup on Thursday said that as many as 72 blocks would be auctioned only to specified end-users. He also made it clear that the auction would not be a “revenue maximising exercise”.

Swarup pointed out that the government wants to ensure that power tariffs do not rise after the auction.

He also said that to ensure that coal blocks are not monopolised, there will be a cap on the number of blocks one entity can bid for. This would limit the amount of coal a company can get in the auction, which will be a two-step electronic process, reports said.

The auction rules would be notified next week, after various stakeholders had provided inputs on the draft rules issues on Thursday.

Earlier, the Supreme Court in September this year had cancelled the allotment of 214 coal mines to various companies since 1993. In October, it had also issued an Ordinance to facilitate fresh allotment through auction.

Sources said the mines would be put up for e-auction for the first time. So far the government has only allowed the e-auction of coal and not mines.

Last month Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the entire process of re-allocation would be completed within three to four months.