Coal news and updates

Cabinet clears bill on mines auction to replace Ordinance

The Cabinet has approved a bill on auctioning coal blocks, which will replace the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 that was promulgated to facilitate auctioning and allocation of mines to private and state entities, government sources said.

The bill is expected to be introduced in parliament shortly. While it is expected to sail through the Lok Sabha where the BJP has majority, government officials say they are also hopeful of getting the approval of the Rajya Sabha.

The ordinance and the proposed bill follow the Supreme Court's September 24 order cancelling 204 coal block allotments which were ruled to be illegal.The enactment of the new law would end any uncertainty about the auction process and also bring about a significant change as it has an enabling provision for commercial mining of coal by private companies, although officials say that the government is in no hurry to use this provision.

It would also help increase domestic coal production, which has severely lagged demand from power sector in recent years.The government came out with the ordinance to enable e-auction of coal blocks to end-user industries such as power, cement and steel.

Source: The Economic Times