Process will be transparent with proceeds going entirely to states with mines
Finanace minister Arun Jaitley said that sufficient and adequate number of mines would be put so actual users go back with the mines
New Delhi: The Centre said that public sector requirements, including those of the Central and state governments, will be met and the coal mines allocated to PSEs like NTPC or state electricity boards.“As far as the private sector is concerned, actual users of coal in cement, steel and power sectors who apply for a certain number of coal mines will be put in the pool and there will be an e-auction. A sufficient and adequate number of mines would be put so actual users go back with the mines,” the finance minister Arun Jaitley said.
He said the auction process will be “transparent” and completed in “three to four months”, with proceeds going entirely to states where the mines are located.The biggest beneficiaries would be the eastern states like Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.States like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh would also benefit.
“The entire mess that the Congress-led UPA government had left behind from 2005 onwards over the next four months would be cleaned up,” the minister said, adding coal worth $20 billion which was being imported annually would be domestically substituted through this measure. “This will financially empower particularly the eastern states (which have most of the coal mines) and lakhs of labourers would get employment while bank capital held up with the companies, which were allotted the blocks, would be fruitfully utilised,” Mr Jaitley said.
( Source : dc correspondent )
Next Story
