Plan panel recommends coal price decontrol

The Planning Commission has suggested raising domestic coal prices to align them with global benchmarks in its approach paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan beginning March 2012. The move is part of the commission’s overall call for gradually rationalising prices in the energy sector to move away from the current, ‘unfortunate’ controlled pricing regime. In the approach paper, the commission said a transition to more rational energy pricing requires upward adjustment in prices.