Business
All clearances by March-end for coal prospecting to begin April 1: Secretary
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By Biswajit ChoudhuryNew Delhi, March 9
In the first working
meeting with stakeholders under the new regime for award of coal blocks,
the government on Monday assured successful bidders under the first
round of auctions that they will get all central and state approvals by
the third week of this month so that prospecting can restart from April
1.
Coal Secretary Anil Swarup, who chaired the meeting with the
bidders and officials from the respective states where the mines are
located, asked for their inputs and suggestions by Tuesday evening so
that formal letters can be issued by March 23.
Swarup said the
government was keen that operations at the coal mines --halted by the
Supreme Court that had declared the earlier allotments illegal and
wanted fresh auctions -- begin from April 1 with the issuance of what
are called vesting orders by March 23.
The vesting order, to be
issued by March 23, transfers to the successful bidder all the rights,
title and interest of the prior allottee and a mining lease that will be
granted by the state government.
Among the statutory licences
and clearances required to start coal mining are ministry of environment
and forest approvals, consent from the local pollution control board,
mines safety clearances and an escrow account for dealing with early
exit from operations.
"For all the clearances required, our
ministry will sit down with officials of all the concerned ministries to
see how these can be included in the vesting order as much as
possible," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told representatives of state
governments and companies that have won mines in the first two rounds of
coal auctions.
"For this, I will require you (new allottees) to send in your suggestions by tomorrow (Tuesday) evening," he added.
Coal
producing states stand to gain as much as Rs.55,000 crore from Round
Two of e-auctions of 12 blocks that have been offered so far after the
Supreme Court had declared the original allotments illegal and ordered
fresh tendering.
In the first phase of auctions that concluded
last month, 19 blocks were on offer and would raise for the state
governments of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and
Maharashtra as much as Rs.109,000 crore over 30 years, as per officials.
Under
the bidding process approved by the government, the shortlisted
participants are required to submit an initial financial bid along with
the technical details. On the actual date of the e-auction, the bidder
is permitted to anonymously submit as many final price offers as
desired.
The auction is on the basis of tariff-based reverse
bidding where the end-use is power generation, and forward bidding for
production of steel, cement and generation of power for captive use.
While
the criteria for calculating the floor price for bidding is based on
state miner Coal India's (CIL) price of coal of the same grade, the
auction also has a ceiling price for power sector bidders to keep the
lid on power tariffs.
(Biswajit Choudhury can be reached at [email protected])