The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, criticizing the power subsidy has said that the ongoing auction of coal mines would help in ensuring cheaper electricity to the common man in a sustained manner, as against the practice of states subsidising power. He further stated that a state subsidy really means that you will have to tax people more in order to provide something free to some other people.
Jaitley emphasized that the reverse auction process will ensure cheaper electricity to common man, as in reverse bidding, the cost of power is going to be linked with the rate at which one gets the fuel. There is aggressive bidding going on for the first tranche of the coal mines auction.
The government is auctioning cola blocks after the Supreme Court cancelled allocation of 204 mines in September. The government has put 19 blocks on sale in the first tranche with the last day for the auction of first lot of mine being February 22. The government has said that poor states would benefit from the auction and is expected to fetch states such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal Rs 15 lakh crore over a 30-year period, or Rs 50,000 crore a year on an average.