E-auction: CAG lauds efforts of coal ministry

Apart from determining whether cartelisation had taken place in the e-auction of coal fields, another objective of the CAG audit of coal block allocations was to determine the robustness and efficiency of the e-auction process from design and implementation right up to the coal production stage.

The CAG, however, was appreciative of the efforts of the coal ministry in planning and implementing an entirely new procedure of allocation of natural resources through the e-auction route within five months of the Supreme Court judgment that cancelled the allocation of 204 coal blocks in September 2014.

The NDA government had claimed that Rs 2 lakh crore had been added to the public exchequer by allocating just 34 coal fields through the e-auction route. The coal ministry was given a copy of the CAG report on June 22, 2016.

Coal block allocations became a major political controversy after a CAG report in 2012 found that private corporates had made windfall gains of about Rs 1.86 lakh crore by resorting to illegal means and violating norms during the tenure of the Congress-led UPA government.

The 2012 CAG report covered a five-year period — from 2004 to 2009 — when the UPA government was in power.