Special forward e-auction, the exclusive window meant for power sector, accounted for nearly 28 MTs of the total despatched quantity.

Coal supplied under other e-auction outlets, where predominantly non-regulated sector customers access coal, accounted for 49.5 MTs. Under this category CIL logged a growth of 21% compared to 41 MTs of same period last year and a two-fold increase over 24.4 MTs of comparable period 2019.

The volume increase in supplies under e-auction was achieved even though CIL pumped an all-time high of almost 391 MTs of coal to thermal power plants during April- December'21 clocking 23.3% growth. The increase in absolute terms is 74 MTs. In comparison, despatch to power sector was 317 MTs for same period last year.

CIL,s total off-take scaled up to 482 MTs during the first nine months of the fiscal in progress registering a year-on-year growth of 18%. The increase in absolute terms was 72 MTs compared to 410 MTs in April-December'20.

CIL has booked a total of 83.7 MTs of coal under its five e-auction categories during April-December'21 - a 2.3 MTs increase over 81.4 MTs of corresponding period last fiscal.

During the fourth quarter of the current fiscal even if CIL books the same quantity of coal in e-auctions that it did during same quarter previous fiscal, which was 42.6 MTs,the company would still sail past the record high e-auction allocation of 124 MTs achieved in 2020-21.

The premium over notified price in e-auctions increased almost four-fold to 58% during April-December'21 compared to 15% of same period last year.

Even after supplying record volume of coal to power sector, the despatch to non-power sector during April-December'21 stood at 91.1 MTs which is almost at par with 92.2 MTs of same period last year. Compared to April-December'19 the growth in supplies to non-regulated sector consumers is 11.5%.