Coal news and updates

Govt must give ROFR to original allocatee: Monnet

October 21: A day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told mediapersons that there would be no right of first refusal (ROFR) and all bidders would have to compete in the e-auction through reverse bidding, a senior official from Monnet Ispat Ltd suggested that the government should give the right of first refusal to the original allocatee even at the 5% mark-up on the highest bid amount.

“These end-use plants being interlinked with specific mines in terms of proximity, evacuation arrangements are already in place. As such, putting no additional burden on already stressed infrastructure facilities will be of national interest,” Amitabh Mudgal, President, Marketing & Corporate Affairs, Monnet Ispat & Energy Limited told ICMW.

He also suggested that any idea to give running mines to Coal India Limited (CIL) and not go in for auctions will be erroneous as the Supreme Court suggested all blocks be auctioned off.

Moreover, running mines can be auctioned off expeditiously and can bring in revenues for the government faster as all the required information or details are available, he added.

Mudgal, while expressing his views on the SC verdict on the coal blocks, said it is unfortunate that the court penalised allocatees while finding fault with the allocation process.

“Unlike India, nowhere in the world the condition of captive use of coal in the specified end-use plant (EUP) is imposed for allocation of coal blocks,” he said.

He pointed out that the acute shortage of coal in the country and the fact that Coal India Ltd.(CIL) alone would not be able to meet the growing demand of the raw material had actually prompted the allocation of coal blocks for captive mining and production.

Moreover, considering the need to boost thermal power generation, steel and cement production capacity, the Coal Mines (Nationalization) Act, 1973 was amended to allow coal mining by both the private and public sectors for captive consumption for production of iron and steel, generation of power etc, Mudgal added.