The Union Government has set up a regulatory authority for the coal sector through an executive order recently. The coal regulator will advice the government on principles and methodologies for price determination while state-owned Coal India (CIL) will continue to fix prices, subject to coal ministry’s approval.
Apart from prices, the regulator will advice the government on allocation of coal reserves, procedure for coal sampling, standards of performance but will not venture into mines safety-related matters, a domain of the labour ministry and environmental issues.
The regulator will also advice on promoting competition, efficiency and economy in the activities of the coal industry; on promotion of investment, development of mining technologies, beneficiation methods and conservation of coal resources, the ministry said in its official notification.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.