Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: With the government gearing up for the auction of coal blocks, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup on Wednesday said the auction would be specified only to the end-users.
Govt will auction coal blocks, whose allocation was cancelled by the Supreme Court, only to specified end-users, he said.
After the Supreme Court squashed 214 coal blocks in September that were allocated to various companies between 1993 to 2010 terming them 'illegal', the government is planning to re-auction them by the end of this financial year.
President Pranab Mukherjee had signed an ordinance in October on the e-auction of coal blocks after it was cleared by the cabinet.
On the auction of coal blocks, the Coal Secretary said the bids in the first phase will be due on February 11.
He also said that the auction was not a revenue maximisation exercise and that the government was keen that tariffs don't rise.
To avoid monopoly, a cap on the number of blocks a company can bid for will be put in place, Swarup said.
