Proposal to set-up coal regulator finally sees light of the day

21 Feb 2014 Evaluate

After seven long years, two cabinet meetings and five odd sittings of a 12-member Group of Ministers (GoM), the proposal to set-up coal regulator got the approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. However, with little or no chances of Parliament giving its nod for Coal Regulatory Authority Bill 2013, CCEA approved setting up of the regulator through an executive order that would have only recommendatory powers. Thus, now only the new government can take this initiative and get the legislative approval after the general elections.

Under this arrangement, the regulator would have the powers to specify the principles and methodology for determination of price of raw coal and washed coal and any other by-product generated during washing. It could also regulate methods for testing for declaration of grades or quality of coal, specify procedure for automatic coal sampling and adjudicate upon disputes between the parties besides monitoring closure of mines and approval of mining plans, among other things.

This development comes at a time when lack of transparency in distribution of reserves led to a ruckus over allegedly favorable allocations that led to a notional loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

The group of Ministers was set up in May 2012 by the cabinet after key infrastructure ministries were logger heads over the functions and powers to be assigned to the regulatory authority. The ministerial panel, which met between July 2012 and May 2013, redrafted the provisions of the bill to ensure the regulator’s power do not overlap with safety laws administered by the labor ministry and environment and forest laws governed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The pricing power too was then snatched away from the regulator based on the argument that coal prices were decontrolled in stages between 1996 and 2000 and de-nationalization of the sector is not envisaged.

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