By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentray Affairs Pralhad Joshi in a written reply in Lok Sabha has said Government has taken the following steps to achieve the target of augmentation of coal production capacity.
1. Single Window Clearance System has been launched.2. Guidelines for procedure and approval of mining plan has been simplified.3. Auctioning of coal mines for commercial sale of coal started.4. Regular review and monitoring of allocated coal mines in the past.5. Holding of Monitoring Committee meetings headed by Secretary (Coal) and concerned Chief Secretary of the state for early operationalisation of coal mines allocated.6. Improving evacuation efficiency & capacity and construction of new railway lines.7. Establishment of new washeries to enhance clean coal.
In addition to above, Coal India Limited has taken following specific steps:Capacity addition through approval of new & expansion PRs.Capacity addition through special dispensation in EC under clause 6(2) of EIA 2006.Enhancing capacity through marginal schemes and OC patches.Capacity augmentation through deployment of MDO.
Use of state-of-art technology in OC minesUse of Mass Production Technology (MPT) in UG mines wherever feasible.All out efforts are being made at all levels for overcoming constraints like possession of non-forest land, diversion of forest land and other statutory clearances.
The Mineral Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020 was enacted to amend the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 [CMSP Act] and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 [MMDR Act]. The amendments in the Acts enabled following.
(i) Allocation of coal blocks for composite prospecting license-cum-mining lease which will help in increasing of the inventory of coal, lignite blocks for allocation. Repetitive and redundant provision requiring previous approval of Central Government in cases where the allocation or reservation of coal/lignite block has been made by the Central Govt. itself has been done away with.
(ii) Provided flexibility to the Central Govt. in deciding the end use of Schedule II and III coal mines under the CMSP Act. Companies which do not possess any prior coal mining experience in India can now participate in auction of coal blocks.
(iii) Methodology for auction of coal and lignite mines / blocks for sale of coal / lignite on revenue sharing basis under the CMSP Act and the MMDR Act was approved by CCEA on 20.05.2020 and order was issued on 28.05.2020. Salient features of the methodology are as under:
Bidders would be required to bid for a percentage share of revenue which would be payable to the State Government.Applicable to fully explored as well as partially explored coal blocks under the CMSP Act and MMDR Act.. Upfront amount is based on value of estimated geological reserves.
Successful bidder shall be provided incentives for early production and for gasification or liquefaction of coal.. Exploitation of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) is allowed.
There shall be no restriction on the sale and/or utilisation of coal from the coal mine.
Provides for relinquishment of coal block by the successful bidder of partially explored coal mine. Directions of the Central Government were issued to the Nominated Authority for conducting auction of 38 coal mines for sale of coal under the provisions of the CMSP Act and the MMDR Act. After completion of all the necessary processes, Commercial Mining was launched on 18.06.2020
Ministry of Coal has started Commercial Auction of coal mines on revenue share basis. In order to arrive at the revenue share based on market prices of coal, one National Coal Index (NCI) was conceptualized. The NCI is a price index which reflects the change of price level of coal on a particular month relative to the fixed base year. The base year for the NCI is FY 2017-18. Prices of coal from all the sales channels of coal, including import, as existing today are taken into account for compiling the NCI. The amount of revenue share per tonne of coal produced from auctioned blocks would be arrived at using the NCI by means of defined formula.
NCI has already been rolled out on 4th June 2020 and the same is placed on the website of the Ministry of Coal. NCI is composed of a set of five sub-indices: three for Non Coking Coal and two for Coking Coal. The three sub-indices for Non Coking Coal are combined to arrive at the Index for Non Coking Coal and the two sub-indices for Coking Coal are combined to arrive at the Index for Coking Coal. Thus, indices are separate for Non-coking and Coking Coal. As per the grade of coal pertaining to a mine, the appropriate sub-index is used to arrive at the revenue share.
