Coal India on Tuesday said it has posted a 65 per cent rise in the sale of fuel through the electronic auction route in the first six months of this fiscal. The public sector miner has booked 41.4 million tonnes (mt) of raw coal through e-auction between April and September 2020 against 25.1 mt a year ago.

“Even with the pandemic slowdown, Coal India could net a 10 per cent average premium over the notified value in the first six months compared with 48 per cent in the previous year. But the aim was to increase volume,” a Coal India official said.

To mitigate the liquidity crunch of coal consumers amid Covid-19 pandemic, the miner also brought down the reserve price to lift more coal during the lockdown phase.

Spot e-auction, meant for both regulated and non regulated sectors, was at 16 MT during the six month period followed by exclusive action of 13.4 MT for non power consumers. A forward auction for power producers bagged 10 MT while a special spot auction yielded 2 MT during the period.

Coal India board has vetted a reserve price of up to a maximum of 10 percent of notified price in October to gauge the market response. Based on the premium fetched, the miner would decide on the reserve price for November.

“Power sector showing signs of recovery bodes well for us to ramp up sales,” said the official. Around 80 per cent of the offtake of Coal India is for the power sector.