On 16th September 2025, the Ministry of Coal published the draft Coal Exchange Rules, 2025 and invited public comments on the same. 

The establishment of the Coal Exchange is a welcome initiative, and could contribute to better resource utilisation, sector innovation and safeguarding of consumer interests. Given the wide ranging impacts of the Coal Exchange, the regulation of such a platform is crucial and will impact the effective functioning of the exchange. The draft Rules introduce the Coal Controller Organisation (CCO) as the authority to register and regulate the Coal Exchange.  

The inputs from Prayas (Energy Group), a long-time proponent of a regulated coal exchange, is aimed at further strengthening the independence, transparency and effectiveness of the CCO as the proposed regulator of the Coal Exchange and includes the following: 

• Ensuring independent operations from the Regulator
• Requiring trade of all approved contracts to be on the Exchange
• Mandating transparency in Regulator operations
• Ensuring that CCO Regualtions, when published, are subject to pubic consultations before finalisation

Following this, the Ministry of Coal published a revised draft Coal Exchange Rules on 19th December 2025. The revised draft Rules propose several positive measures such as inviting public consultation on applicant registration, requiring demutualisation, and mandating transparency and information dissemination from the coal exchange. The coal exchange could contribute to better resource utilisation, sector innovation, and coal price discovery, subject to effective and clear regulation of the platform and its operations.

Prayas (Energy Group) provided inputs towards further strengthening the independence, transparency and effectiveness of the proposed coal exchange(s), which included the following: 

• Ensure clarity in the objective, appointment and operations of the Coal Exchange Regulator and include a dedicated chapter on the Authority in the Rules towards this
• Provide clear provisions for coal quality in contracts approved by the Authority for trade on the coal exchange(s)
• Strengthen transparency and informtion dissemination through measures such as mandating regular data disclosure from coal exchanges through standardised formats
• Be cognizant of the challenges that may arise with multiple coal exchnages in operation and be prepared to deal with them
• Include provisions to ensure fairness in the ownership structure of the coal exchange