Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
The central government is continuing with privatisation of coal mines. On the other hand, public sector coal companies are being deprived of funds to expand their production capacity at the rate required. This has led to repeated coal shortage in the country during the last two years, forcing the country to import expensive coal. The burden of the cost of the imported coal has been passed on to people through higher electricity rates.
The government has begun the auction of another set of coal mines from November 03, 2022. These coal mines include both fully explored and partially explored coking and non – coking coal and lignite mines.
Already 32 coal mines have been auctioned by the Ministry of Coal from 2016-17 onwards to date. See Box for details of coal mines auctioned.
Another move towards privatisation is reportedly under consideration by allowing captive coal mines to sell 50 per cent of their production in the open market. Thus, all the captive mines will become commercial mines. They will no more be required to first satisfy the captive requirement of the company to which they were allotted before selling excess production in the open market. Captive coal mine owning companies will prefer to buy cheaper coal from public sector coal companies and make more profit by selling a part of their own production in open market where the coal price is much higher. Nearly 90 million tonnes of coal were produced by captive coal mines in 2021-22 and used mostly for power generation.
Details of coal mines auctioned by Ministry of Coal from FY 2016-17 onwards
The above information was given by the Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs in a written reply in Lok Sabha in February 2022.