To push Narendra Modi’s flagship scheme ‘Make in India’, the cabinet has today passed an ordinance to remove the end-use restrictions on private coal mining. The move will thus allow commercial mining of coal by private companies by promulgating the Mineral Laws Amendment Ordinance 2020. The cabinet said that the Coal India Limited (CIL) has been allotted adequate coal blocks to ramp up production and has been provided with a production target of 1 billion tonnes by 2023-24. Coal accounts for a significant portion of raw materials in the industry. Especially in sectors such as steel, coal is extensively used as fuel to operate blast furnaces. With the current move, the government also aims to increase domestic coal production, bringing the steel prices down, which will help in boosting the infrastructure sector.

“Even though India is the fourth largest resource of coal in the world, the country imports 235 tonnes of coal every year, out of which 135 million tonnes are substitutable,” said Cabinet Minister Prakash Javadekar. To restrict such imports, the cabinet today allocated coal or lignite blocks for composite prospecting licence cum mining lease.

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Many players from the private sector have appreciated the government’s latest move and have called this an important step towards economic revival. Sajjan Jindal, MD, JSW Group has also welcomed today’s announcements.

To speed up the process of implementation of projects, ease of doing business, simplification of procedure and benefit all the parties in areas where minerals are located, the cabinet said that the requirement of previous approval in cases where the allocation of blocks was made by the central government has been dispensed with.