New Delhi: The government's biggest reform in the coal sector — commercial coal mine auction — has received a good response from investors, with total registrations at 400 until now for the 38 blocks on offer, a top government official told PSU Watch on the condition of anonymity on Tuesday. "So far, going by the number of registrations and the follow-ups received from potential investors, it is safe to say that the industry has welcomed the reform. We have seen 400 registrations so far and the response looks very encouraging. The auction process has elicited interest from both domestic and global investors," the source said.
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The Centre launched commercial coal mine auction on June 18 earlier this year. And in view of the COVID situation, the auction has been postponed to October and the final winners will be declared in November.
The auction will take place in two parts — technical and financial. The technical bids will be evaluated by a joint secretary-level official from the Ministry of Coal. The government had started the process for the auction of coal mines for commercial mining in June this year after amending the Coal Mines Special Provisions Act, 2015 in May. The terms of the bidding process were liberalised in order to attract foreign and domestic players. However, the Centre has also placed restrictions on the entry of countries that share land borders with India, like China, even though it had earlier allowed 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through the automatic route for coal mining.
The news comes as the government has reduced the total number of coal mines on offer from 41 to 38. While 34 coal blocks on offer are fully explored, the remaining four are partially explored. The decision of opening up the coal sector for commercial mining was part of a series of announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. The Coal Ministry, in association with FICCI, launched the process for auction of these coal mines on June 18.
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