Business
Coal e-auctions fetch Rs.55,000 crore thus far in second round
New Delhi, March 9
India's 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.
Thus, the
coal e-auctions will fetch the producing states Rs.164,000 crore from
the two round so far with two more blocks on offer on Monday and another
on Friday -- the last scheduled day for the latest tranche, as per data
available with the Ministry of Coal.
This does not include the
royalty which could add up to another Rs.25,000 crore, officials said.
This apart, the coal ministry has also received 107 applications from
state-run firms like NTPC, SAIL and Damodar Valley Corp for the
allocation of 43 coal blocks, exclusively kept for them.
"The
states like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, and Madhya
Pradesh to benefit the most out of the e-auction proceeds. Chattisgarh
to get Rs.47,552 crore, Madhya Pradesh Rs.35,588 crore and Jharkhand
Rs.12,622 crore," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup had said after the first
round.
The prime minister Narendra Modi was also elated with the bidding.
"This
is what we have done in 11 months. Our nation will have a revenue of
Rs.110,000 crore from the auction of only 19 coal blocks of the total
204 blocks," he said last week, referring to the first phase of
auctions.
"Imagine how much the nation would earn when we
auction all 204 coal blocks?" the prime minister asked adding that when
all 204 coal mines are put on the auction block, the revenue figures
will surpass the figure of Rs.186,000 crore which the official auditor
had potentially estimated.
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.
While the highest bid can be viewed on their screens, the name of the bidder is not divulged.
The
terms also require each subsequent bid be made with an increment of
Rs.2, within the notified start and the closing time -- but a grace
thereafter period is allowed to increase the bid, even if the closing
time has lapsed. The successful bidder thereafter is immediately
announced.
The auction has a clause that extractable reserves of
the allocated coal mine cannot exceed 150 percent of the annual
requirement of the specified end-use plant over a period of 30 years.
As
regards the payment, an upfront amount has been notified for each
block. An amount equal to 50 percent of that is payable immediately, 25
percent upon the execution of the mining lease and the remaining on the
grant of mine opening permission.
The licencee is also required
to make monthly payments on the basis of the final price, that will will
have to be made within 20 days of the expiry of each month. There will
also be an escalation in annually, based on a reference mechanism that
will be published in the first week of April.