Indian Ministry Likely to Auction Leftover Coal Blocks First

The Indian Coal Ministry is planning to auction 11 leftover coal blocks first which were earlier included in Schedule II & III list.
After successful completion of first round of coal block auction, the government is now more focused on the next round’s methodology. The next phase may commence in the end of Jun’15. In it, the government is planning to put 11 leftover blocks from the first round of coal block auction list which could not be put on sale owing to a few reasons.

Earlier, the ministry had put total 42 coal blocks in Schedule II & III block auction combined. However, certain blocks had very low number of participants and there were lawsuits pending against block holders under many benches such as Delhi and Jabalpur High Courts. The ministry decided to remove all blocks which were going through any dispute or lawsuit. Thus, 11 blocks were removed during the auction period and only 31 were sold.

This time, the ministry will give priority to steel and cement sector on account of huge demand and supply gap faced by the industry. In first phase of auction both sectors received only 32% & 33% blocks which were allotted earlier in 83% & 16% respectively.

In the first phase of auction, power sector dominated and received about 70% of blocks in the auction. Aluminum and cement sectors received most of the blocks that were earlier allotted to the steel sector.

The ministry is planning to auction those 11 leftover blocks on priority basis which may be reserved for both unregulated sectors combined to fulfill their requirement first.

List of 11 Coal Blocks