Coal Regulatory Authority

Energy has the vital role to play in the development of the human beings to sustain with the ever changing environment. Industrial revolution created a major turnover in the use of energy resources. The energy mainly refers to the fossil fuels and electricity. Managing these resources is the key asset of the country. The global economy is affected by the production and consumption of these resources. To economize and manage energy resources there should be governors. Regulatory authorities have come up with this challenge to become the governors of the energy resources.

India has five ministries that are responsible for energy utilization. They are atomic energy, renewable, petroleum and natural gas, coal and power. The Atomic Energy Commission is part of the ministry and there are independent regulatory authorities for petroleum and natural gas and the power. The Office of Coal Controller as the name suggests has the power of controlling the coal utilization in the country. Lately regulatory body for coal is being planned which has come into effect due to the coal allocation scam or popularly known as Coalgate. Can regulator body be the substitute for the coal commissioner?

The Office of Coal Controller, one of the oldest offices of coal sector was established to have a government control over the coal production. The functions of this organization being stipulating and inspecting the grade and size of the coal, as an authority in the case of disputes between consumer and producer, managing the quality of the coal during loading of trucks, permission to grant opening or reopening of the coal mine or seam and providing financial support to coal operators for various purposes. This office was deregulated of the distribution and pricing of the coal in 1966. The distribution and allotment of the coal was taken up by the ministry of coal.

The arbitrary allocation of the captive coal blocks and the allegations of anomalies in coal block allocation have made the government to establish the Coal Regulatory Authority. The main functions of this regulator body are formulation of the price of the raw coal, washed coal and other by products, allocation of the coal blocks, improvising the technology of the mining operations and all the functions of the Coal Controller.

The regulatory body will be playing the main role in bringing in the competitiveness among the companies for e-auction for coal blocks and the trade margins, increasing the transparency of the allocation of the coal reserves. The prices of the coal will be determined by the producers but this body has to provide eye shot on the pricing. The long run disputes between CIL and NTPC over the fuel supply agreements will be resolved the regulatory body. The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has approved the draft bill and the government has started to work on the establishment without the approval of the parliament through executive order. Coal regulatory authority having higher responsibilities than the OCC can be replaced as the governor of the coal sector. Till now government has not yet decided about making the OCC obsolete but as the Coal regulatory Bill get passed in the Parliament this will be a query to wonder on.