Odisha to meet CEC next month on e-auction roll out

The Odisha government will have its next meeting with the Supreme Court appointed central empowered committee (CEC) in August to have the final round of negotiations on rolling out the proposed e-auction in the state to sell key bulk minerals like iron ore and chrome.

E-auction launch in the state has been delayed amid pending written consent from the CEC that was needed to enforce the process on the private lessees.

“We will have the next meeting with the CEC in August on starting e-auction process. We will submit all necessary information sought by the committee,” said a top official source.

Earlier, the CEC had sought information from the state steel & mines department regarding price differential between normal sale price of mine lessees and e-auction prices. The committee also pointed out the possibility of disputes between buyers and sellers that may arise due to auction sale.

The department expected to start electronic sale of minerals within a month of getting concurrence from the CEC.

Recently, the state government had sent a team of its officials to Karnataka to study the e-auction model.

“The team has come back and has expressed satisfaction over the implementation of the e-auction model in Karnataka. The team will be submitting its report to us soon,” the official said.

After regulatory curbs on mining in Karnataka and Goa, Odisha is destined to play a key role in supply of iron ore, a key raw material for steel making. Sale of the ore on the electronic route is expected to ensure transparency.

Odisha has raised cap on iron ore output from Joda and Koira, its two most ore producing sectors to 57 million tonne (mnt) this fiscal, nearly 10 per cent higher than 52 mnt in 2012-13, to ensure greater raw material availability.

Though the government has not estimated revenue generation from e-auction, sale of iron ore alone through the electronic route is likely to fetch additional revenue of Rs 400 crore annually.

MSTC Ltd and mjunction services, a 50:50 joint venture between Steel Authority of India Ltd (Sail) and Tata Steel, had evinced interest to offer e-auction services for mineral ores. The decision of selection of the service provider was pending at the government level.