Innovative Measures Adopted by Coal Ministry To Meet Growing Requirement of Coal

What is the News?

The Union Minister of Coal has informed Rajya Sabha about the reforms undertaken in the Coal Sector.

What are the measures that have been taken by the Government to meet the coal requirement in  India?

Commercial Auction of coal on revenue share mechanism: This methodology for coal mine auctions entails reduced upfront payment and the bidders will be required to bid for a percentage share of revenue payable to the government. Earlier, blocks were allocated to companies on payment of fixed amounts per tonne.

Allowed sale of excess coal production: The Ministry of Coal has amended Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 to allow 50% sale of coal produced in a financial year from captive mines. This is applicable for both the private and public sector captive mines.

Rolling Auctions: In order to expedite the process for conducting auctions and to carry out more rounds of the auction in a year, a mechanism of rolling auctions of coal mines has been planned. Under this mechanism, upon completion of the electronic auction process of a tranche, the next tranche of the auction would be launched for the following mines:

– Mines where no bid or only a single bid was received in the previous tranche of auction (except for those mines where the Ministry of Coal decides to go for a second attempt of the auction)

– New mines, if any, identified by the Ministry of Coal.

Single Window Clearance: The Union government has launched a Single Window Clearance portal for the coal sector to speed up the operationalisation of coal mines. It is a unified platform that facilitates grants of clearances and approvals required for starting a coal mine in India.

Source: This post is based on the article “Innovative Measures Adopted by Coal Ministry To Meet Growing Requirement of Coal” published in PIB on 15th Mar 2022.