Mumbai: The government is committed to resolve the issues impactinig production and supply of coal in the country, Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has said. He added that the sector has improved in the last four years.
“We will be importing less coal than what we did four years ago and the quality of coal today has never been so good,’ he said and stated, ‘The government is committed to resolve all issues related to the sector.”
Captive power producers coming from sectors like aluminium, steel and copper have been complaining the issue of coal supply to run their plants.
In this regard, the Indian Captive Power Producers Association (ICPPA) had earlier submitted a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) requesting to address the issue of coal availability and its supply.
Supply of coal is a long standing issue for the captive power producers who unlike the independent power producers (IPPs) don’t produce it for commercial purpose.
Holding responsible the previous government for contributing to the issue, Goyal said, “This is the weakness of the previous government that they insisted you (the players) to design power plant on imported coal then we will allow you environmental permission to set it up. They could never imagine that country could have 10 per cent growth of coal production which we have this year in the first half.”
In the monsoon, he said there was stress of power, the requirement shot up and coal production could not keep pace with the monsoon. Earlier this month, the Minister urged State-run Coal India Ltd to pledge self-sufficiency in production to eliminate import of the dry fuel, and look at reviving the one billion tonne output aim.
| In the past… |
| India’s thermal coal imports rose by eight per cent and coking coal imports by about 13 per cent for the previous financial year ended 31 March, government data showed.
India’s total coal imports rose for the first time in three financial years, undermining the goverment’s plan to reduce India-bound coal shipments and cut its import bill. The value of India’s coal imports rose by 38.2 per cent to 1,384.77 billion rupees ($20.17 billion), the statistics wing of India’s Trade Ministry said. Higher Indian imports will be a boon for international miners such as Indonesia’s Adaro Energy, Australia’s Whitehaven Coal and global commodity merchants such as Glencore, it was stated at the time, when Asian coal prices were rising to multi-year highs. Imports of thermal coal – mostly used for power generation – rose to 161.27 million tonnes for the year to March 31, from 149.31 million tonnes the in financial year 16-17. |