Ending the 41-year-old monopoly of the central government over mining and sale of coal, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the allotment of coal mines to states for mining and commercial sale to medium and small industries in their state.
This move is likely to benefit the mineral-rich states to earn surplus revenue, which were until now earning royalty from private companies mining coal for captive use. This is pursuant to the enabling act on commercial mining and sale of coal in the new Coal Ordinance (Special Provisions), 2014.
¨Consequent to this Cabinet decision, such coal blocks will not be having any specified use. So, the coal blocks which the states would mine, in turn, would be able to allot that coal to any industry. This will ultimately benefit the medium and small scale industries, including small power plants, which can´t source coal from Coal India,¨Anil Swarup, secretary, ministry of coal, said.
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