The coal ministry has decided to
bar captive coal miners from raising production beyond the approved level,
rejecting industry demands and the proposal from the Planning Commission to
allow excess output to ease fuel scarcity.
The coal ministry has prepared
the policy, but is waiting for law ministry's approval before notifying it.
Under the policy, surplus coal should be sold to state-run Coal India Ltd at
price lower than production cost, government officials said.
The ministry's “surplus coal
and washery products and other carbonaceous products policy” was
accidentally put on the ministry's website on Tuesday and withdrawn after few
hours as the law ministry has not vetted it so far.
Of 193 coal blocks allotted over
18 years to companies for captive use, only 28 are in production. Against a
target of more than 90 million tonnes, only 38 million tonnes is being mined
out from these mines.
The Coal Mines Nationalisation
Act of 1973 allows coal from captive block be used exclusively for specified
end use project and production of surplus coal should not result in any undue
advantage to captive block owner, the policy said.
Source: The Economic Times
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