Lok Sabha Question No. 899 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-02-07
Subject: Zero Thermal Coal Imports
Ministry: COAL
Asked by: PONNUSAMY VENUGOPAL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COAL LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 899 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07. 02. 2018

## Zero Thermal Coal Imports

## 899. DR. P. VENUGOPAL:

Will the Minister of COAL be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  is  aiming  to  bring  down  thermal  coal  imports  in  the power public sector undertakings to zero in the current financial year;
- (b)  if  so,  whether  this  move  would  reduce  the  country's  import  bill  by  about  Rs. 17,000 crore;
- (c) whether the Government is considering to convince private companies operating in the power space to totally stop the import of thermal fossil fuel; and
- (d) if so, the steps taken in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COAL (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

- (a) :   As per current import policy, coal is kept under Open General License (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal from the source of their choice as per the contractual prices on payment of applicable duty. CEA has reported that, with 47% reduction  in  import,  indigenous  coal  based  power  plants  have  imported  19.87  MT coal in 2016-17 against 37.21 MT in 2015-16. In absolute term substitution of import by  indigenous  coal  has  been  17.34  MT.  In  the  current  Fiscal,  from  April  to December, 2017, import of  coal  by  these  plants  have  further  reduced  to  12.8  MT from  15.42  MT  during  same  period  last  year.  For  imported  coal  based  plants,  as reported by CEA, there was an increase in coal import in 2016-17 to the tune of 2.8 MT  as  compared  to  2015-16,  due  to  commissioning  of  new  plants  in  2016-17. However, in the current Fiscal, from April to December 2017, import of coal by these plants have been reduced to 30.83 MT as compared to 34.6 MT during same period last year. Further, the gap between demand and supply of coal cannot be bridged completely as power plants designed on imported coal will continue to import coal for their production.
- (b) :  All India Coal imports  upto October 2016-17 and  2017-18 is given below:-

| (Quantity in Million Tonnes )   | (Quantity in Million Tonnes )   | (Quantity in Million Tonnes )   | (Quantity in Million Tonnes )   |
|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
| Year                            | Coking Coal                     | Non Coking Coal                 | Total Coal                      |
| 2016-17 #                       | 23.65                           | 92.64                           | 116.30                          |
| 2017-18 #                       | 26.95                           | 89.18                           | 116.12                          |
| Absolute Growth                 | 3.30                            | -3.46                           | -0.18                           |
| Growth in%                      | 14.0                            | -3.7                            | -0.2                            |
| # Up to October                 | # Up to October                 | # Up to October                 | # Up to October                 |

The value of coal import depends upon the prices of coal in the International market and fluctuates accordingly.

(c)  &  (d): CIL had taken steps for promotion of import substitution through source rationalization with part supply from higher grade coal sources.  Coal from various sources  including  higher  grade  were  offered  through  various  types  of  e-auction including  special  forward  e-auction  with  ease-of-business  terms  like  flexi  tenure  of lifting, reduction of EMD and floor price to cater to requirement of various consumers including TPPs not having FSA with CIL. These factors have also contributed to fall in coal import.

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