CIL's coal allocation under spot e-auction drops 36% to 11.25 MT in Apr-Sep

CIL's coal allocation under spot e-auction scheme declined 36.4 per cent to 11.25 million tonne in April-September period of the ongoing fiscal.

Coal India (CIL) had allocated 17.69 million tonne (MT) of coal in the year-ago period, according to government data.

The coal allocated by the PSU under the scheme in September also dropped to 1.97 MT, compared to 2.58 MT in the corresponding month of 2018-19, it said.

Coal distribution through e-auction was introduced with a view to providing access to coal for such buyers who are not able to source the dry fuel through the available institutional mechanism, as per the information available on CIL website.e

The purpose of e-auction is to provide equal opportunity to all intending buyers for purchasing coal through single window service. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output. CIL's coal allocation under spot e-auction scheme had declined 37.7 per cent to 34.34 MT in 2018-19.

The government had earlier asked the mining major to fast-track its ambitious one billion tonne production target and look to achieve the goal by 2023-24. The miner had earlier said it would meet the target by 2025-26. CIL is targetting an output of 660 million tonne in the ongoing financial year.