Govt publishes rules for Coal Exchange

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 criteria for operating and instituting the exchange.

Prominently among them are statutory regulations about payment and settlement of contracts, minimum eligibility requirements to be met for an entity to establish the exchange and its governance structure, among other things.

The Coal Ministry, in a statement, held that 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 access 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 the 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 on December 11, 2025.

It was entrusted with registering and revoking registrations, market oversight and surveillance over the activities of exchanges, notifying guidelines and procedures for settling disputes and placing grievances, among other things.