The decision was taken at a high-level meeting of the ministry yesterday with its Advisor Mahmudur Rahman in the chair.

The meeting formed a high-level committee, headed by joint secretary (development) of the energy ministry, to carry out the job.

The country has so far discovered seven coal basins in the northern region with a total reserve of more than 1.7 billion metric tons.

There are a number of laws and rules regarding coal exploration, coal mine development and leasing of the coal fields. These laws and regulations were formulated between 1910 and 2004.

The adviser to the energy ministry found all these existing rules and regulations more or less obsolete and inappropriate to deal with foreign companies in the new context of coal mine business in the country.

"The existing rules and laws are very old and insufficient to protect the interest of the country in dealing with the foreign companies who want to invest in our coal mine sector," he told journalists after the meeting.

Mahmudur Rahman said the worldwide focus on the use of coal as an energy source is growing following the recent rise in fuel price on the international market.

The coal reserve in Bangladesh also came to the focus in recent days, as many foreign companies are showing interest to invest in the country, he said.

"Actually, almost every day, we're receiving investment offers from different foreign companies to invest in coal exploration and mine development…These companies are based in the USA, Korea, Australia and other parts of the world," said Mahmud, who is also the executive chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI).

He said with this growing interest among the foreign companies, the country should revise the existing rules, regulations and laws related to the coal mine.

He mentioned that the present rules allow only 6 percent royalty for the government when a private company invests to develop coal mine.

Even the licence fee is remarkably low, as for any exploration activities a private company has to pay only Tk 3,000 for the first 100 hectares and Tk 100 for every additional hectare.

On the other hand, for mining purpose, a company has to take licence from the government by giving a fee of Tk 75,000 for the first 30 hectares and Tk 300 for each additional hectare.

"This is really too low compared to other countries," the adviser said, adding that this goes against the interest of the country.

He said the government has sought help of USAID to carry out a study to have a clear picture about the open-cut coal mining and deep coal mining in the country.

"Determining the negative and positive aspects of the two methods of coal mining is the main objective of the study," he added.