The Hindu Business Line : Ministry okays interim coal sale policy

The Union Ministry of Coal has approved an interim coal sale policy allowing Coal India Ltd (CIL) to sell its coal to the "linked" core sector as well as to "non-linked" buyers until a model coal sale mechanism is framed by the Supreme Court-appointed committee to replace the existing practice of selling coal through " e-auctions".

Responding to petitions filed by aggrieved consumers, the Supreme Court on December 9, had held up the sale of coal through e-auctions.

While confirming the development, the Chairman of CIL, Mr Partha S. Bhattacharjee, told Business Line here on Friday that he had "received the Coal Ministry's approval on the interim coal sale policy", which will be put in place immediately so that coal supply to linked core sector as well as non-linked buyers can be resumed at the earliest, particularly in view of the onset of the peak coal demand period on account of the brick-burning season across the country.

The Ministry's approval is based on a proposal submitted by CIL after consulting the Attorney-General on the legal aspects of the interim arrangement. However, coal supplies to core sector-linked consumers will continue as before.

Non-linked buyers

According to the CIL proposal, under the interim coal sale policy, non-linked buyers will get their supply of coal at a fixed price through the "e-booking route" on a first-come first-served basis. The existing mode of registration and other terms and conditions like EMD, password, quantity etc. will remain unaltered.

The participants would not be required to quote a bid price but would bid only for the quantity. Pre-fixed price of coal would be notified in advance by the coal company and North Eastern Coalfields (NEC) along with other details. The e-booking site would become operational 15 minutes prior to the start of booking.

The interim policy further states that at the appointed time, the e-booking system of the service provider will start accepting the bids. Total booking duration will not exceed two hours, during which time the site will accept bids as long as the quantity sought is available for booking. In any event, the site will accept quantity bids during the first 15 minutes of e-booking irrespective of the quantity available. If the booked quantity in the first 15 minutes is more than the quantity offered, all bidders would be allocated coal on a pro-rata basis.

The maximum quantity that can be booked by a bidder will not be more than a third of the quantity offered for booking. A bidder will have to book a minimum quantity of a rake in case of rail booking and at least 50 tonnes in case of road booking.