Coal auction to generate over $100 billion for states: Goyal

Davos: Asserting that investors have no concern about ordinance route being adopted for coal auction, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said the entire process would generate over USD 100 billion in royalties and auction proceeds for various states.

"The ordinance has a weight of law. Any action taken under ordinance has complete protection as if it was done within the legal framework of Act. "Therefore, there are no concerns at all," Goyal told PTI in an interview here at the World Economic Forum (WEF). The Minister, who held a series of meetings with existing and potential investors in power and coal sectors as also with various government leaders during his three-day visit, said "the auction process is already on, people have started registering themselves on the website".

"The bidding process will start next month and all mines won in the bid would be legally tenable and can never go wrong. I don't think there is any cause for concern for any investor whatsoever," he added. Asked about the revenue to be generated from the auction, Goyal said, "The entire revenue that comes out of this auction will either go to the states or to the people of India in the form of lower power tariff. I believe that the Eastern states where most of the states are situated, particularly West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and to smaller extent Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar stand to gain not less than Rs 5-7 lakh crores which is over USD 100 billion over the next 30 years from royalty and auction proceeds.

"Apart from that, you will see that power tariffs will come down significantly and the benefits that will be passed on to the consumers over the next 30 years would be enormous." On the state of coal sector in the country, the Minister said coal production in India was stagnating at about 1-1.5 per cent CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) over the past 4-5 years. "We came into the government on May 26, 2014 and from June to December the coal production was up by 8.4 per cent. In fact, between October and November, the coal production was up 14 per cent over the last year. "Also, electricity generation in first six months of our government went up by 11 per cent. These are also records on Indian perspectives," Goyal said.