In the financial year that ended on March 31, the state-run enterprise allocated 27.14 million tonne coal as opposed to 28.93 MT in FY2017-18

New Delhi: In financial year 2018-19, state-run Coal India saw a six percent decline in coal allocation to the power sector under special forward e-auction mechanism in comparison to the FY2017-18. In the financial year that ended on March 31, the state-run enterprise allocated 27.14 million tonne coal as opposed to 28.93 MT in FY2017-18, a monthly report prepared by the coal ministry for the Cabinet showed.

In the month of March, the total allocation stood at 1.12 MT in comparison to nil in the corresponding month a year ago. Coal India had last year said that it would put on offer more than 45 MT coal under the special forward e-auction mechanism in 2018-19.

The special forward e-auction was introduced to ease lifting of coal

The government-owned coal producer had introduced the special forward e-auction last year to reach out to its customers and facilitate power plants to systematically plan the lifting of coal. The PSU produced 606.9 MT coal in 2018-19 as opposed to 567.4 MT in 2017-18.

Coal India accounts for over 80 percent of India's coal output.