Budget 2015: Coal auction to bring revenue windfall for states, says Jaitley

New Delhi: Stating that auction of coal mines is one of the top three achievements of the government in its nine months’ period, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the process would bring several lakhs of crores of rupees to the kitty of coal-bearing states.  "I would like to talk of three achievements as they demonstrate the quality and conviction of our government… the other is coal auctions," he said in his Budget speech. He further said that earlier “the states only got benefits of royalty. Now, by the transparent auction process that we are carrying out, the coal-bearing states will be getting several lakhs of crores of rupees.” The money from e-auction proceeds, he said, could be used for creation of long-awaited community assets and for the welfare of the people. The government had recently auctioned 19 coal blocks in the first lot. The allocation of coal blocks, including through ongoing auction, will fetch a whopping Rs 15 lakh crore over the next 30 years, for the respective states, Power Minister Piyush Goyal had said on February 19. Coal Secretary Anil Swarup today tweeted that “Finance Minister hails coal block auction and consequent flow of funds to the states as one of the top three achievements of the government.” “States like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, and MP to benefit the most out of e-auction proceeds..,” he had earlier tweeted. The companies that had bagged the 19 blocks on offer include Reliance Cement, GMR Chhattisgarh, Hindalco, Sunflag Iron and Steel, Jaiprakash Associates, Jaiprakash Power Ventures, OCL Iron and Steel, Bharat Aluminium, Essar Power MP, Jindal Power and UltraTech Cement. The auction of first lot of auction which began on February 14 closed on February 22. However, the government has put off the second round of auction of 21 coal blocks to March. The auction of mines in the second tranche was earlier scheduled to begin from February 25. The auctions of the mines came after the Supreme Court in September last year cancelled the allocation of 204 coal mines. PTI