New Delhi, March 18
The central government,
even as it races against time to get legislative sanction for the
auction of cancelled coal blocks before parliament goes into recess on
Friday, is "re-examining" nine winning bids out of the 33 blocks
auctioned so far but India Inc. has expressed concern at the move.
The
development comes even as the bill which seeks to replace the ordinance
under which mines are being e-auctioned, was approved on Tuesday by a
Rajya Sabha panel, paving the way for its passing by the upper house.
The
coal ministry will take a decision this week on whether there are any
price discrepancies in case of the nine winning bids, including those
made by companies like Jindal Steel and Balco.
The final decision
on whether nine winning companies like Hindalco, Jindal Steel and
Power, Jaypee Cements and Usha Martin would depend on the re-examination
of these bids by the auction nominated authority.
Five of these
blocks belong to Schedule III (near operational) category, while four
are under Schedule II (operational), a coal ministry official told IANS
on Wednesday.
The ministry is considering whether these bids
were too low when compared with the winning bids for other similar
blocks through an analytical tool called "outlier", which looks for
unusual observations that are far removed from the mass of data, the
source added.
"Not making any allegation of cartelisation as of now," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted on the matter.
The
ministry is looking at instances like the Brinda and Sasai blocks,
bidding for which opened at Rs.1,802 per tonne and closed at Rs.1,804
per tonne. Similarly, bidding for the Meral mine opened at Rs.725 a
tonne and closed at Rs.727 a tonne.
Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha
Select Committee on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill on Tuesday
also recommended its approval without any change.
However, it
wanted the government to consider issues like impact of mining
activities on environment, rampant illegal mining, lack of proper and
scientific mine closure, land acquisition and resettlement and capturing
windfall profits for the welfare of local and tribal communities.
"The
committee, in view of limited ambit of amending bill under its
consideration, is of the opinion that these issues are of utmost
significance that warrant serious consideration by the government.
Changes
to the Mines Act, which seek to introduce the system of auction of
mines to enhance transparency in mineral allocations was passed in Lok
Sabha earlier this month. It seeks to introduce a system of auction in
granting prospecting licences, similar to that for coal proposed by the
coal mines bill.
The select committees' reports provoked the
Congress to strongly protest over the measures being rushed without
taking on board the concerns of stakeholders.
Protesting Congress members trooped towards the presiding officer's podium, forcing a 10-minute adjournment in proceedings.
Business chambers expressed concern at the government's "re-examination".
"Any
instance of reversing the process or withholding an award will
adversely impact the overall business sentiment, said A. Didar Singh,
secretary general of industry chamber FICCI.
"At a time when the
government has introduced legislation to open up coal mining as an
industry, global mining companies intending to participate will need the
assurance and comfort of a stable policy regime that will guarantee
predictability of decision-making, certainty of investments as well as
security of tenure," he added.
