Coal India’s spot e-auction scheme sees decline of coal allocation

Govt says there is a drop of 37.7% in coal allocation under spot e-auction scheme that is meant for buyers who are not able to access coal allocation through traditional mechanism

New Delhi: Public sector undertaking company, Coal India Limited's spot e-auction scheme has registered a decline of 37.7 per cent in the financial year 2018-19. According to the government data coal PSU had allocated 55.17 million tonnes (MT) of coal in 2017-18 while it reduced to 34.34 million tonnes in the last fiscal year(2018-19).

e-auction scheme a game leveller

Although there is a marginal growth when we look at the March 2019 data. In March the coal allocated by the PSU under the said scheme is 4.18 MT, while in the same month in 2018 total coal allocation was 3.79 MT. SO there a slight rise of around 10%.

It is important to note here that Coal India Ltd accounts for over 80% of total domestic coal output of India. This scheme, in which CIL does coal distribution through e-auction was primarily introduced to provide equal opportunity to even small players who are not able to source the dry fuel through the available institutional mechanism.

CIL missed the target in 2018-19

The CPSE under the aegis of the ministry of coal has reported a growth of 7 per cent in coal production to 606.9 million tonnes in 2018-19, a shade below the MoU target of 610 million tonnes with the coal ministry.

The coal production stood at 567.4 million tonnes in FY 2018.