The Union government had announced 67 mines for auction and allotment under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act 2015, leading to a potential proceeds of Rs. 3.35 trillion over a span of 30 years.
In March 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in a press release, “Fetching of over Rs. 2 trillion from auction of just 33 coal blocks has shown that policy-driven governance can rid the system of corruption.”
This means, on an average Rs. 112 billion of revenue should be generated annually for the states, while an average revenue from the operation of the 67 mines over two years would be Rs. 224 billion.
However, the truth is quite distant from PM Modi’s statement. Three and a half years later, the Modi government has collected and passed on merely Rs. 58.84 billion for the period of February 2016-July 2018 to the states, reported Business Standard.
This is the revenue generated from the auction of 31 and allotment of 58 coal blocks.
According to PM Modi’s bold estimates, the proceeds should have been roughly about Rs. 392 million in three and a half years.
Data provided by the Ministry of Coal shows that for the period from February 2015 to July 2018, Chhattisgarh has received the maximum proceeds of Rs. 21.95 billion, whereas Telangana received the least proceeds among the states (Rs. 440 million).
In August this year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee submitted its report on Coal and Steel suggesting that the promises made by the Modi government were mere bold estimates which did not take off. “The production from the captive mines had not taken off as promised by the Modi government,” the report stated.