State-owned Coal India allocated 24.87 million tonnes of dry fuel for the spot electronic auction (e-auction) during April-January, down by 8.19 per cent over the same period last year.
CIL had allocated 27.09 million tonne (mt) of coal in the year-ago period, according to the government data.
For January 2020, the coal allocation for the e-auction scheme fell to 3.62 mt from 4.83 mt in the corresponding month of 2019.
Coal distribution through e-auction was introduced to provide access to coal for such buyers which are not able to source the fuel through available institutional mechanism.