CIL allocates 8 per cent less coal under spot e-auction in April-September

New Delhi: State-owned CIL allocated 24.9 million tonnes of coal under spot e-auction in the first six months of the current fiscal, down 7.7 per cent from the year-ago period.

The decline comes amid government's goal to secure availability of coal to meet the demand of various sectors of the economy including power. Coal India Ltd (CIL) had allocated 27 million tonnes of the fuel in the April-September period of last fiscal, according to the government data.

The PSU allocated 4.068 million tonnes of fossil fuel under spot e-auction of coal in September, against 4.282 million tonnes in the same month last fiscal, it said. Under e-auction, coal is sold at spot market price.

CIL had introduced a Spot e-Auction Scheme 2007 for facilitating the country wide-ranging access to book coal online for all sections of coal buyers enabling them to buy coal through a simple, transparent and consumer-friendly system of marketing and distribution of coal.

CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production and is eyeing 1 billion tonne production by 2020. The PSU is eyeing 598 million tonnes production in 2016-17.