Summary
To stem future allegations of impropriety and ensure competitive power tariff for consumers, the government proposes mandatory coal block linkage for power projects awarded by state distribution companies on the basis of competitive tariff-based bidding. The move follows successful completion of the first round auctions for captive coal blocks, where the government offered 67 blocks to end users under a competitive bidding / allocation process. Sources in the coal ministry said that tariff-based bidding as a method for providing long-term coal linkage has been suggested by the power ministry and endorsed by the interministerial committee constituted to finalise methodology for the propo......