India’s coal import declines by over 90 MT in FY21 vis-à-vis FY20

• While India imported 248.537 MT of coal in FY20, the coal import stood at 156.496 MT until December 2020 for the current financial year

• Joshi informed the Rajya Sabha that an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been constituted in the ministry for the purpose of coal import substitution

New Delhi: India has seen its coal import decline by 92 Million Tonnes (MT) in FY21 in comparison to FY20, data shared by Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi in the Rajya Sabha on Monday showed. While India imported 248.537 MT of coal in FY20, the coal import stood at 156.496 MT until December 2020 for the current financial year. According to the data shared by the minister, India imported 235.348 MT of coal in FY19 and 208.249 MT of coal in FY18.

The government has placed a lot of emphasis on bringing down coal imports. The Ministry of Coal also conducted the first round of commercial coal mine auction in 2020, which, it said, was aimed at bringing in competition into the market and increasing the domestic production of coal.

IMC constituted for coal import substitution

Joshi informed the Rajya Sabha that an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been constituted in the ministry for the purpose of coal import substitution. "The Representatives from Ministry of Power (MoP), Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Coal Companies and Ports are members of this IMC. This Committee provides a platform for discussions on a larger forum with the Administrative Ministries so as to guide them to encourage the coal consumers of their respective sector to eliminate imports of coal. Nine meetings of the IMC have been held so far. IMC has also directed for development of an Import Data System by Ministry of Coal to enable the Ministry to track the imports of coal. Coal India Limited (CIL) has also started an online portal to register the requests of coal consumers willing for import substitution of coal," the minister said.

What is Coal India doing for import substitution?

The Annual Contracted Quantity (ACQ) of the power plants have been increased upto 100 percent of the normative requirement in those cases where the ACQ was earlier reduced to be 90 percent of normative. State-run miner Coal India Ltd has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under import substitution for about 12 Million Tonne Per Annum (MTPA) coal with power plants linked with CIL. Accordingly, CIL has allocated 9.53 Million Tonne (MT) coal to the power plants till February under the import substitution scheme.

ALSO READ

1. CIL trims revenue expenditure by 3.3%; cuts in employee benefits contributes majorly to reduction

2. Joshi tells CIL monopoly can't last forever, improve efficiency to deal with competition

A special spot auction scheme was started for coal importers, including traders, so as to enable coal import substitution. CIL has offered about 32.7 MT coal under this window, out of which 7.53 MT coal was booked by consumers/importers/traders.

(PSU Watch– India's Business News centre that places the spotlight on PSUs, Bureaucracy, Defence and Public Policy is now on Telegram. Join PSU Watch Channel in your Telegram and stay updated)