In order to broaden its customer base and maintain a steady bottomline, Coal India favours twisting its e-auction policy, according to an official.
The notion to put all e-auction coal in one bucket will help in realising a higher off-take, PTI quoted the official.
“When pithead coal stock is nearly 70 million tonne and we have a surplus situation, the idea of putting all e- auction coal in single bucket will help expand the base of customers. This will result in a higher offtake,” suggested the official.
Earlier, the government had given an indication that some reform measures could be opted regarding the marketing of the fuel.
Although the economic activities seem to be back in action after the lockdown, the allocation of coal for e-auctions is “more than demand at present,” he mentioned.
The coal giant conducts five types of e-auction of the dry fuel for its customers.
Adopting a policy of conducting one auction for all types of customers is aimed at broadening the customer base, the official said.
The PSU major had recently allowed its subsidiaries to fix the base price for e-auction depending on demand to improve their margins.
However, Coal India registered a 77 per cent growth in e-auction sales under the five windows, with a booking of 68.3 million tonne in the April-November period in the current fiscal as compared to 38.6 million tonne booked during the year-ago period.
