 "Coal allocation for spot e-auction drops 8.19% in Apr-Jan to 24.87 MT")
State-owned Coal India Ltd allocated 24.87 million tonnes of dry fuel for the spot electronic auction (e-auction) during April-January, down by 8.19 per cent over the same period of last year.
Coal India (CIL) had allocated 27.09 million tonne (MT) of coal in the year-ago period, according to the government data.
For January 2020, the coal allocation for the e-auction scheme declined to 3.62 MT from 4.83 MT in the corresponding month of 2019.
Coal distribution through e-auction was introduced with a view to providing access to coal for such buyers who are not able to source the fuel through available institutional mechanism.
The purpose of e-auction is to provide equal opportunity to all intending buyers for purchasing coal through single window service.
Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.
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CIL's coal allocation under spot e-auction scheme had declined 37.7 per cent to 34.34 MT in 2018-19.
The government had earlier asked the mining major to fast-track its ambitious one billion tonne production target and achieve the goal by 2023-24.
The miner had earlier said it would meet the target by 2025-26.
CIL is targetting an output of 660 million tonne in the ongoing fiscal.