Coal mine bidders worry about first stage price offers

New Delhi: Ahead of coal block auctions, some of the bidders have raised concerns over first stage price offers for the bid, seeking simplification of procedures. The development came at a meeting of the bidders convened by the government recently to discuss proposed auction of 23 coal blocks in the first tranche.[caption id=“attachment_2042211” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Coal policy. Reuters[/caption] “During the meeting some of the companies raised their concerns about the double price bid. In the first or qualification stage the bidders will have to give an indicative price,” an official said adding that the top five bidders will go for the next stage of e-auction. An indicative price is the first price quoted by the company based on their own assessment, the official said. After the qualification stage, the “shortlisted five bidders will have to again quote a price”. Till now 100 companies have registered themselves on MSTC website for participating in the auction of coal blocks. The bidders who wish to participate in the auction will have to pay an application fee of Rs 5 lakh which is non-refundable. After submitting the money, a bidder will have the access to complete details of the coal blocks. During the pre-bid meeting attended by almost 100 companies, questions were also raised on different issues including the end-use plants linked to the coal mines. The meeting was chaired by Vivek Bhardwaj, the designated authority for the auction. Bhardwaj is a joint secretary in the coal ministry. Industry body Assocham had earlier suggested to the government that no indicative price offer should be sought during the qualification stage and all pre-qualified bidders should be allowed to bid in the coal auction process. The government has earlier dropped one coal block from the list of 24 mines due to “technical reasons”. After dropping Namchik Namphuk mine in Arunachal Pradesh from the list, 23 mines will be available in the first auction now. E-auction of coal mines for qualified bidders will be held from 14-22 February. PTI