New Delhi: State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) has taken a host of measures to help cut 71 Million Tonnes (MT) of costly coal imports in the April-February period of the current financial year, the company has said in an official statement. This includes an increase in e-auction volumes by 43.5 MT, allowing subsidiaries to sign pacts under import substitution with 17 power plants linked with them, offering additional coal to non-regulated sector against fuel supply agreements up to 100 per cent of annual contracted quantity (ACQ), and raising the trigger level for the power sector from 75 percent to 80 percent.
The ACQ for power plants was enhanced to 100 percent of the normative requirement from the earlier 90 percent. Also, additional coal was allocated to state and Central generating companies under flexi utilisation policy, enabling them to reduce coal imports.
CIL has also waived-off performance incentive for power sector consumers, for supply of coal beyond the trigger level since the beginning of the fiscal. This helped the consumers in opting for additional quantities of coal at lower cost from CIL. "These coordinated efforts of CIL, apart from 43.5 MTs of increased bookings in e-auction, helped arrest the imports by further 28 MTs," said a senior executive of the company. "Had CIL not launched such measures the choice for consumers would have been to reach for imported coal," the company said.
The consumers who gained from the initiatives included CESC, Andhra Pradesh Power Development Corp, Adani Power and GMR Group in the power sector, and Vedanta, Jindal Steel & Power, NALCO, Hindalco and Tata Steel in the non-regulated sector.
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