Non-auction of coal blocks causes loss of Rs 10.67 lakh crore to the govt: CAG

22 Mar 2012 Evaluate

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has racked up yet another storm for the government by pointing out that coal acreages were allotted to private companies without any auctioning between 2004 and 2009.

In its draft report titled 'Performance Audit Of Coal Block Allocations', the CAG has stated that the government has allotted 155 coal acreages, totaling to a whopping Rs 10.67 lakh crore, to private players leading to ‘windfall gains’ to these companies. The beneficiaries include some 100 private companies, as well as some public sector units, in industries such as power, steel and cement.

This revelation has come in 16 months after the exposure related to the auctioning of the 2G spectrum that rocked the UPA government. As per CAG, the estimated a loss figure of Rs 10.67 lakh crore at March 31, 2011 prices, is six times that of its highest presumptive loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore for the 2G scam. This too is conservative estimate, since it takes into account prices for the lowest grade of coal, not the median grade.

The report has further gone on to state that coal being a natural resource should have been allocated to private players on competitive bidding as it brings in more transparency and objectivity in the system. Also since the State legally owns the natural resources on behalf of citizens, the natural resources cannot be allocated to private hands without ensuring that the benefit of low cost of the natural resources is passed on to the citizens.

The object of allocation should be to serve the public cause and to do the public good by resorting to fair and reasonable methods. Every decision of the State to confer benefits must be sound, transparent, discernible and as per a well-defined policy, report added.

The major private companies that are likely to be beneficiaries of the allocation are Tata Group entitites, Jindal Steel & Power, Electro Steel castings, the Anil Agrawal group (Vedanta) firms, Delhi-based Bhushan Power & Steel, Jayaswal Neco Nagpur-based Abhijeet group And Aditya Birla Group companies, Essar group’s power ventures, Adani Group, Arcelor Mittal India, Lanco group and several other small to medium players.

The likely PSU beneficiaries are NTPC, MMTC, many West Bengal government owned corporations, and mines and mineral development corporations of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

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