Lok Sabha Question No. 131 (STARRED), answered on 2021-02-10
Subject: Import of Coal
Ministry: COAL
Asked by: E. T. Mohammed Basheer

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COAL LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.*131 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.02.2021

## Import of Coal

## *131. SHRI E.T. MOHAMMED BASHEER:

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

- (a)  whether  there  is  any  proposal  to  curb  the  import  of  coal  and  produce more coal in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the steps taken by the Government for reducing the import of coal in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS, COAL AND MINES

(SHRI PRALHAD JOSHI)

(a) to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House

## Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (c) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 131 for answer on 10.02.21 asked by SHRI  E.T. MOHAMMED BASHEER

(a) & (b): Coal is  under Open General License (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal from the source of their choice as per their contractual prices on payment of applicable duty.   Coal import substitution, wherever feasible, by domestic coal is a priority of the Government under Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative to save the precious foreign exchange.  Import of coal has reduced from a level of 165.57 Million Tonnes (MT) during April-November 2019 to 134.35  MT  (Provisional)  during  April-November-2020  showing  a  negative growth  of  18.86  %.  A  number  of  steps  have  been  taken  to  increase  the supply of domestic coal in the market. Coal India Limited (CIL), Singareni Collieries  Company  Limited  (SCCL)  and  captive  block  coal  production  by 2023-24  is  targeted  for  1  Billion  Tonnes  (BT),  80   MT  and  154  MT respectively. Ministry of Coal has launched the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining on June 18, 2020 under CM (SP) Act, 2015 and MMDR Act, 1957. 38 mines were actually put up for auction for commercial mining. It has opened-up the coal sector to private and foreign players. The Blocks spread  over  five  states  have  total  geological  reserves  of  16,979  MT  and accumulative  peak  capacity  of  225  MT  per  annum.  The  commercial  coal mine auction is an attempt to attract private investment into the coal mining sector thus  bringing in more  competition  and  efficiency in the coal sector.  The Union government launched Single Window Clearance portal for the  coal  sector  to  speed  up  the  operationalisation  of  coal  mines.  It  is  an unified platform that facilitates grant of clearances and approvals required for starting a coal mine in India. A Project management Unit (PMU) has been launched  by  Ministry  of  Coal  for  hand-holding  of  coal  block  allottees  for obtaining  various  approvals/clearances  for  early  operationalisation  of  coal mines.  CIL  has  formulated  a  production  enhancement  plan  to  reduce demand supply gap and also to minimize non-essential imports of coal in the  country  through  a  slew  of  measures.  These  include  adapting  State-ofthe-Art-technology,  operationalizing  new  mines  through  Mine  Developer  & Operator (MDO) mode, identifying and approving new/expansion projects/schemes, obtaining Environment Clearance expansion for additional  production  through  capacity  enhancement  and  improvement  in overall efficiency by way of digitization of mining system and greater levels of mechanization.

(c): An  Inter  -  Ministerial  Committee  (IMC)  has  been  constituted  in  the Ministry of Coal 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.  Eight  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.

In  addition  to  it,  the  following  steps  have  also  been  taken  to  reduce coal imports:

- o The Annual Contracted Quantity (ACQ) of the Power Plants have been increased   upto  100%  of  the  normative  requirement  in  those  cases where the ACQ was earlier reduced to 90% of normative requirement and the power plants were required to import balance 10%.
- o CIL  has  signed  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under Import Substitution for about 12 Million Tonne Per Annum (MTPA) coal with the Power plants linked with CIL. Accordingly, CIL has allocated 9.11 MT  coal to the power  plants till  January'  2021  under  Import Substitution.
- o Reserve/floor price across all e-auction schemes was kept to notified price till 2 nd  quarter (earlier by 10-30% above the notified price) with a view to maximize coal utilization by the consumers.
- o Increase in the dispatch to Non-regulated Sector (NRS) consumers in the current Financial Year (Till 13 th  January' 2021) to 37.2 rakes/day compared  to  28.3  rakes/day  last  year  with  a  growth  of  31%.  Total dispatch  to  NRS   registered  a  growth  of  13%  as  compared  to  same period of last year.
- o Facility  of  Usance  LC  (Letter  of  Credit)  payment  mechanism  in addition  to  the  existing  Irrevocable  Revolving  Letter  of  Credit  (IRLC) payment  was  introduced  to  help  the  consumer avail  credit  facility from bank.
- o A  special  Spot  auction  scheme  was  started  for  the  coal  importers including the traders, so as to enable coal import substitution.  CIL has offered about 29 MT coal under this window out of which  7.5 MT coal was booked by the consumer/Importers/Traders.

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