Image for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Paving the way for establishing coal exchanges in the country, the government on Tuesday (June 9, 2026) published the Coal Exchange Rules (2026) - formally putting down rules and eligibility criterions for operating and instituting the exchange.Prominently among them being statutory regulations about payment and settlement of contracts, minimum eligibility requirements to be met for an entity to establish the exchange and their governance structure, among other things.The Coal Ministry, in a statement, held the coal exchange would mark a “paradigm shift” in coal marketing by enabling multiple sales channels, that is, from ‘one-to-many’ to ‘many-to-many’.“This will enable transparent and market-driven price discovery, improve efficiency, and provide coal producers, including commercial and captive miners, with easier to a wider pool of buyers,” the statement read.The published rules outline that an applicant seeking to establish a coal exchange must have a net worth of “not less than fifty crore rupees”.Further, they must adhere to being ‘demutualised’, that is, the ownership and management do not hold any trading rights in the exchange.As the settlement of contracts, the rules put forth that the final price of the traded coal be adjusted in accordance with quality of coal being traded which shall be assessed by any coal sampling agency – recognised by the Coal Controller Organisation (CCO).The Coal Ministry had appointed CCO as the authority to register and regulate the exchanges December 11 last year.It was entrusted with registering and revoking registrations, market oversight and surveillance over the activities of exchanges, notifying guidelines and procedure for settling disputes and placing grievances, among other things. Published - June 09, 2026 12:06 pm IST
