New Delhi: Coal India Ltd's (CIL) first-ever offer of nearly 5.2 Lakh Tonnes (LT) of coal under the recently revamped, single window e-auction was met with encouraging response from coal consumers, with 100 percent of the offered quantity getting booked, said CIL in a statement on Wednesday. After the merger of multiple auction windows into a single outlet, CIL conducted e-auction in two of its subsidiaries on March 3. The entire quantity of 3.2 LTs offered by Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), under the newly structured auction window, was fully booked.
Similarly, a little over 1.98 LTs placed under the sole e-hammer by Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) got ordered 100 percent.
Following the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in the last week of February, sale of non-linkage coal through a single e-auction window was allowed. Only the spot e-auction serves all types of coal consumers now. The consumers from regulated and non-regulated sectors and traders now compete for coal under one common window.
CIL's offer of e-auction coal under the revamped regime is now mode agnostic, which means, the company will not specifically mention transportation mode of coal, ex-colliery.
Earlier, the mode for coal booked under different auctions used to be specified, with rail as default mode. Now, the customers, however, have the option to choose their preferential mode-rail or road.
CIL had constituted a committee under a General Manager of the marketing and sales division at the corporate level to smoothen any crimps arising out of the migration to the modified system and roll out its seamless functioning.
"The big upshot is discovery of true market price for coal with removal of the segmentation. Previously, same coal used to fetch different prices in different e-auction windows. Another point in favour of the new system is increased transparency with all the offered coal placed in a single basket. Hitherto, coal companies had the discretion of separate offers for different windows," said an official of CIL.
Further, there will be a level playing field for all consumers with same price structure. Other benefits include elimination of cartelisation due to wider base of participants. As all e-auction coal will be placed in the same basket, the bidder will have more choice and as a result bookings are likely to increase.
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