Coal news and updates

The government would introduce a Bill in Parliament for setting up an independent watchdog for the coal sector and likely task it with determining a mechanism to price the fuel and specify methods to ensure supply of quality coal to the country’s power and steel plants.

Setting up a coal regulator was an unfinished agenda of the erstwhile UPA government. It did introduce the Coal Regulatory Authority Bill 2013 in the Lok Sabha in December last year. But with the dissolution of the House, the legislation could not be passed.

The present government has decided to draft a Bill after extensive consultations with the stakeholders like coal and power ministries, end users of the fuel and industry houses and then seek the Union Cabinet’s approval before tabling it in the Lok Sabha in the Winter Session.

At a meeting on October 24, top coal ministry officials decided to wind up the consultation process with stakeholders early to approach the cabinet next month to seek its approval on the draft bill, a source privy to the meeting said.

What would differentiate the fresh legislation from the earlier one is that the proposed regulator may be conferred powers to determine a mechanism to price the fuel, which the earlier government had opposed on the plea that it would collide with the coal ministry’s powers in having a say in pricing of coal.

But considering that the power companies have been consistently asking the government to disallow “profiteering” by a “monopolistic producer” like Coal India, the NDA government is keen to allow the proposed watchdog to do so without itself being a party to it.

 

 

Source: http://indianexpress.com/