Lok Sabha Question No. 4665 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-24
Subject: Export and Production of Coal
Ministry: COAL
Asked by: P.P. Chaudhary, Arjunlal Meena, Kaushal Kishore

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COAL LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4665 TO BE ANSWERED ON 24.03.2021

## Export and Production of Coal

4665. SHRI P.P. CHAUDHARY: SHRI ARJUN LAL MEENA: SHRI KAUSHAL KISHORE:

## Will the Minister of Coal be pleased to state:

- (a)     the details of production, consumption, import and export quantity of coking and non-coking coal in India in last ten years;
- (b)     whether India is observing a high coal inventory situation leading to coal surplus and lesser production and if so, details therefor for the last five years;
- (c)        whether  the  Government  owned  PSUs  are  allowed  to  export  the surplus coal and if so, the details thereof;
- (d)       whether  coal  mined  in  India  is  competitive  for  export,  quality  and price-wise and if so, the details thereof;
- (e)  the  initiatives  that  have  been  taken for making all types of  Indian coal internationally competitive; and
- (f)      the details of the number of cases that are pending and investigations active in relation to coal pilferage and scam in India?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS, COAL AND MINES (SHRI PRALHAD JOSHI)

( a): The  details  of  the  production,  consumption,  import  and  export quantity of coking and non-coking coal in India in last ten years is attached at Annexure-A .

(b): The detailed scenario of the Coal Stock/Inventory in India along with the  Coal  Production  and  Dispatch  during  past  5  years  are  given  in  the following table,

Figures in Million Tonnes

| Financial year       |   Opening Stock of Coal |   Production |   Offtake |   Closing Stock |
|----------------------|-------------------------|--------------|-----------|-----------------|
| 2015-16              |                  59.389 |      639.23  |   632.442 |          65.361 |
| 2016-17              |                  65.362 |      657.868 |   645.978 |          76.889 |
| 2017-18              |                  76.889 |      675.4   |   690.003 |          62.036 |
| 2018-19              |                  62.036 |      728.718 |   732.794 |          57.64  |
| 2019-20              |                  57.64  |      730.873 |   706.77  |          81.431 |
| 2020-21(upto Jan-21) |                  81.431 |      545.458 |   555.552 |          72.748 |

(c): The Government controlled PSUs can export coal. Coal India Limited (CIL)  can  use  its  Special  Spot  e-auction  /  Spot  e-auction  windows  to  sell coal for the purpose of export. Coal India Limited can also participate in the tenders floated by the neighboring countries to export coal after meeting the domestic coal demand.

(d): Competitiveness of a product is dependent upon various factors like consumer  preference,  desired  quality,  landed  cost,  logistical  and  financial benefits etc. For Nepal and Bhutan, Indian coal is competitive against coal of other countries. For Bangladesh, landed cost of Indian coal is comparable to the coal being received from other countries

(e): Due to Drift Origin, Indian coal resources, by nature, mostly consist of    poor  quality  non-coking and coking coal containing high inherent ash. As  such there is very limited availability of high quality coal in India, yet it is  made  competitive  through  pricing  as pricing  of  coal  by  the  Government companies is most competitive.

For improving quality of produced coal from available resources,  PSUs like CIL have taken various initiatives:

-  As around 95% of the coal production of CIL has been envisaged to come from Opencast mines & remaining 5% from underground mines, CIL has planned to deploy surface miners in various open cast mines for selective mining, wherever geological conditions permit. At present, production  from  surface  miners  contribute  around  45%  of  the  total production of CIL and shall further increase in future.
-  Further,  Coal  beneficiation  in  washeries/deshalers  is  also  a  process by which the quality of raw coal is improved. At present, CIL has a total  coal  washing  capacity  of  34.63  million  tonnes  per  year  (Mty) through 12 existing washeries, of which 10 are coking coal and 2 are non-coking. CIL shall set up further 9 washeries in 1 st  phase & 3 in 2 nd  phase with an aggregate throughput capacity of 60 Mty.

(f): Law & Order is a State subject, hence primarily, it is the responsibility of  the  State/District  administration  to  take  necessary  deterrent  action  to stop/curb  theft  /  pilferage  of  coal.  First  Information  Reports  (FIRs)  are lodged whenever any incident of theft / pilferage of coal comes to the notice of  the  coal  companies.  State/District  administration  take  further  action against the lodged FIR.

FIRs lodged in cases of theft / pilferage of coal during 2019-20, companywise and State-wise is given below:

(Provisional)

| Name of the Company   | State     |   2019-20 |
|-----------------------|-----------|-----------|
| ECL                   | WB        |       228 |
|                       | Jharkhand |        82 |
|                       | Sub Total |       310 |
| BCCL                  | Jharkhand |        12 |
|                       | WB        |         0 |

|                    | Sub Total          |   12 |
|--------------------|--------------------|------|
| CCL                | Jharkhand          |   13 |
| NCL                | MP                 |    0 |
|                    | UP                 |    0 |
|                    | Sub Total          |    0 |
| WCL                | Maharashtra        |   18 |
|                    | MP                 |    0 |
|                    | Sub Total          |   18 |
| SECL               | MP                 |    1 |
|                    | Chhattisgarh       |    2 |
|                    | Sub Total          |    3 |
| MCL                | Orissa             |    2 |
| NEC                | Assam              |   27 |
| Coal India Limited | Coal India Limited |  385 |

In the case of SCCL, one Police complaint was lodged.

ANNEXURE-A COKING & NON-COKING-WISE  COAL PRODUCTION, OFFTAKE (DESPATCHES+COLLIERY CONSUMPTION), IMPORT AND EXPORT IN INDIA  DURING LAST 10 YEARS (Quantity in Million Tonne)

| Year    | Production   | Production   | Production   | Offtake   | Offtake     | Offtake   | Import   | Import      | Import   | Consumption ( Offtake + Import )   | Consumption ( Offtake + Import )   | Consumption ( Offtake + Import )   | Export   | Export      | Export   |
|---------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|-------------|-----------|----------|-------------|----------|------------------------------------|------------------------------------|------------------------------------|----------|-------------|----------|
| Year    | Coking       | Non- Coking  | Total        | Coking    | Non- Coking | Total     | Coking   | Non- Coking | Total    | Coking                             | Non- Coking                        | Total                              | Coking   | Non- Coking | Total    |
| 2010-11 | 49.547       | 483.147      | 532.694      | 48.950    | 474.515     | 523.465   | 19.484   | 49.434      | 68.918   | 68.434                             | 523.949                            | 592.383                            | 0.111    | 1.764       | 1.875    |
| 2011-12 | 51.660       | 488.290      | 539.950      | 51.723    | 483.576     | 535.299   | 31.801   | 71.052      | 102.853  | 83.524                             | 554.628                            | 638.152                            | 0.097    | 1.917       | 2.015    |
| 2012-13 | 51.582       | 504.820      | 556.402      | 55.859    | 511.277     | 567.136   | 35.557   | 110.228     | 145.785  | 91.416                             | 621.505                            | 712.921                            | 0.056    | 2.387       | 2.443    |
| 2013-14 | 56.818       | 508.947      | 565.765      | 58.464    | 513.596     | 572.060   | 36.872   | 129.985     | 166.857  | 95.336                             | 643.581                            | 738.917                            | 0.008    | 2.180       | 2.188    |
| 2014-15 | 57.446       | 551.733      | 609.179      | 56.438    | 547.334     | 603.772   | 43.715   | 174.068     | 217.783  | 100.153                            | 721.402                            | 821.555                            | 0.042    | 1.196       | 1.238    |
| 2015-16 | 60.887       | 578.343      | 639.230      | 59.213    | 573.229     | 632.442   | 44.561   | 159.388     | 203.949  | 103.774                            | 732.617                            | 836.391                            | 0.064    | 1.511       | 1.575    |
| 2016-17 | 61.661       | 596.207      | 657.868      | 59.308    | 586.670     | 645.978   | 41.644   | 149.309     | 190.953  | 100.952                            | 735.979                            | 836.931                            | 0.027    | 1.746       | 1.773    |
| 2017-18 | 40.148       | 635.252      | 675.400      | 45.380    | 644.623     | 690.003   | 47.003   | 161.245     | 208.249  | 92.383                             | 805.868                            | 898.252                            | 0.068    | 1.436       | 1.504    |
| 2018-19 | 41.132       | 687.586      | 728.718      | 43.318    | 689.476     | 732.794   | 51.838   | 183.510     | 235.348  | 95.156                             | 872.986                            | 968.142                            | 0.060    | 1.247       | 1.306    |
| 2019-20 | 52.937       | 677.936      | 730.873      | 50.656    | 656.114     | 706.770   | 51.833   | 196.704     | 248.537  | 102.489                            | 852.818                            | 955.307                            | 0.002    | 1.046       | 1.047    |

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