Inactive Coal Mines Can Be Surrendered Without Fines, Cabinet Decides

The Cabinet approved a proposal for providing a one-time window to central and state PSUs to surrender non-operational mines without penalty and without citing any reason, said an official statement.

The Union Cabinet on Friday approved granting a one-time window to the Central and State PSUs to surrender non-operational coal mines without penalty.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today approved the Ministry of Coal's proposal for providing a one-time window to the Central and State PSUs to surrender non-operational mines without penalty (forfeiture of bank guarantee) and without citing any reason, the official statement by the government read.

This may release several coal mines which the present government PSU allottees are not in a position to develop or are disinterested and could be auctioned as per the present auction policy. A three-month time will be granted to the allottee government companies to surrender the coal mines from the date of publication of the approved surrender policy.

Post cancellation of coal blocks by the Supreme Court in 2014, to prevent immediate disruption of coal supplies to thermal power plants, the government allotted many cancelled coal blocks to state and central PSUs on the allotment route.