Coal Ministry preps action plan for FY24, targets to launch Coal Trading Exchange this year

New Delhi: The Ministry of Coal is targeting to launch the Coal Trading Exchange in this financial year, an action plan prepared by the ministry reviewed by PSU Watch shows. “The establishment of a Coal Trading Exchange in the country shall open up the coal market through an online trading platform and provide easy coal availability in the market... It is targeted to launch the Coal Trading Exchange during FY 2023-24,” said the action plan.

“CRISIL Limited has been engaged as a consultant for providing strategic and implementation management consulting services to assist the Ministry of Coal in the process of setting up a Coal Trading Exchange,” it added.

With a view to increase the domestic production of both non-coking and coking coal while placing emphasis on quality, the Ministry of Coal has prepared a comprehensive action plan for FY 2023-24, where it has chalked out clear targets under various heads like trading of coal, quality issues, commercial coal mining, adoption of technology, coal evacuation infrastructure, benchmarking of machines, outsourcing of CIL mines, speedy land acquisition for coal projects, etc.

Quality check for domestic coal

The plan places a lot of emphasis on having third-party conduct quality checks for coal produced by coal companies, which has been a long-standing demand from both power and non-power consumers of coal. The ministry is looking to engage third-part sampling agency for collection, preparation and analysis of coal samples at loading end. For the power sector, state-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has already empanelled one third-party sampling agency for power utilities and plans to empanel more.

In 2023-24, the Ministry of Coal plans to ensure the supply of only sized coal as per Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) provisions, ensure NABL accreditation of remaining one lab, SP Mines (ECL), out of 58 labs, increase the number of labs to six at four different areas of BCCL and two at CCL and the development of an interface between CIL ERP and CIMFR portal which will ensure seamless and automated data transfer without manual.

Govt targets asset monetisation of Rs 50,000 cr

With respect to asset monetisation, the Ministry of Coal has set a target of Rs 50,118.61 crore for FY 2023-24. Under this figure, assets worth 10,118.61 crore belonging to Coal India will be monetised and other assets worth Rs 40,000 crore will be monetised.

In FY 2022-23, until February 2023, the Ministry of Coal has monetised assets of Rs 6,735.82 crore through the MDO model, assets of Rs 17,400.99 crore through coal block auction and Rs 490 crore through the monetisation of abandoned coal mines. The total works out to be Rs 24,626.81 crore against the target of Rs 30,000 crore given by Niti Aayog.

The capex target for Coal India has been set at Rs 16,500 crore, NLCIL at Rs 2,880 crore and SCCL at Rs 1,650 crore. In FY 2023-24, the Ministry of Coal plans to allocate 25 coal mines for commercial mining.

Diversification plan for CIL

“CIL having the strength of technical competency and surplus reserves has to diversify for sustainable future business operations,” says the action plan. And new business areas for Coal India will include aluminiun, power, solar wafer, solar power and renewables, coal-to-Hydrogen projects and coal gasification projects. In addition, the coal PSU has also been given the target of expanding its core business of coal production by taking its output figure to 1 Billion Tonne (1 BT).

With an objective to enhance coking coal availability in the country for reducing imports, the Ministry of Coal also plans to set up coking coal washeries.

Land acquisition

Gazette Notification proposals for land acquisition under CBA Act, 1957 of coal companies would be processed as and when these are received during the period and the appointment of Presiding Officer, Special Tribunal, Nagpur will be done, says the plan. The Ministry of Coal is also engaged in the preparation of a Cabinet note for setting up of a full-time Tribunal at Talcher, Odisha under CBA Act, 1957.

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