CIL's coal allocation under spot e-auction drops 36% in Apr-Sep

New Delhi: CIL's coal allocation under spot e-auction scheme declined 36.4 per cent to 11.25 million tonne in April-September period of the ongoing fiscal.

Coal India (CIL) had allocated 17.69 million tonne (MT) of coal in the year-ago period, according to government data.

The coal allocated by the PSU under the scheme in September also dropped to 1.97 MT, compared to 2.58 MT in the corresponding month of 2018-19, it said.

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 dry fuel through the available institutional mechanism, as per the information available on CIL website.

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.

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 look to 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.

Meanwhile, Coal India on Monday reported a 14 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,522.7 crore for the quarter ended September.

The company's net profit stood at Rs 3,084.54 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing.

Its total income, however, declined to Rs 22,012.94 crore in the July-September quarter of financial year 2019-20 from Rs 23,486.35 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. Despite the fall in total income, Coal India's net profit increased as its tax outgo declined significantly to Rs 754.25 crore from Rs 2,031.71 crore in the year-ago quarter.