Despite the embarrassment faced by the Manmohan Singh government over the “arbitrary” allocation of captive coal mines and the allegations of anomalies in the coal block allocation against the Ministry, the Coal Ministry continues to drag its feet on a Bill to set up a regulator for the coal sector.
Neither the Ministry nor the Cabinet Secretariat seems to be in a hurry to push through the legislation, which has been hanging fire for the past few months. This is despite a decision taken on March 30 by the Cabinet Secretariat Monitoring Committee on Energy Security to put up the Cabinet note for approval by the next day for setting up a coal regulatory authority, along with the Independent Coal Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012.
But there is no trace of the Cabinet note coming up for consideration, though three weeks have passed after the deadline expired.
Recently, a draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) pointed to serious discrepancies in the allotment of captive coal mines in the private and public sectors, causing windfall gains to various companies.
According to the official note accessed by The Hindu on the second meeting of the Monitoring Committee on Energy Security held in the Cabinet Secretariat, a decision was taken to put up the Cabinet note on the coal sector regulator before March 31. Not only has the deadline been missed, there also seems to be little movement on the issue in the Ministry. The draft Bill is proposed to be introduced during the second part of the budget session of Parliament beginning on April 24.
According to the official records, the Cabinet note and the draft Bill, having been cleared by all Departments and Ministries, have been vetted and cleared even by the Law Ministry. However, the Coal Ministry continues to sit on them, and they are yet to be given a final shape. The Ministry is appointing a consultant to suggest the process and methodology for introducing competitive bidding for coal assets.
Under the Bill, the regulator will be empowered to decide on coal prices and suspend or cancel authorisations of errant producers. The regulator will authorise mining operations, production and supply of coal and suspend and cancel operations. The authority will set standards for performance and operational norms for companies.
The Centre's role will be restricted to policy-making, while the regulator will ensure implementation. At present, coal prices are fixed by the Coal Ministry in consultation with Coal India Limited and other companies. The regulator will also look after the pricing of coal washing, washed coal and by-products. The government has proposed that the regulator be composed of a chairman and four members (technical, legal, administration and finance).
