MUMBAI : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcements over the weekend to allow commercial mining in India’s coal production and remove the government monopoly is unlikely to provide an immediate relief to stressed thermal power companies even as they benefit from improved coal linkages in the long run.
Analysts say that since the earliest coal evacuation that is possible under the new policy is in FY26-27, stressed thermal power plants won’t be able to financially hold out long enough to benefit from the change in policy.
Sitharaman said that the government will permit a revenue-sharing mechanism instead of regime of a fixed rupee per tonne in commercial coal mining, allowing any company to bid for a coal block and sell in the open