In June this year, the government had asked the state-owned coal India limited to be ready to import 12 Million Tonnes of coal for power utilities.
Mumbai: The Monsoon this month has brought some respite for the people of India, but just three months ago, India was dealing with a major heatwave. And to add to the woes of the people were the frequent and long power cuts. These power cuts majorly were attributed to the coal shortage in the country.
Even last year, in the month of October, India faced a similar situation of coal shortage and thus power cuts.
While the government immediately undertook measures to increase stock supply and the crisis was addressed, the question about the coal shortage in the country did make it to the parliament’s monsoon session.
Replying to the question on coal shortage in India, the Coal Ministry said that there is no shortage of Coal in India.
MP CM Ramesh had asked the following questions related to the coal shortage to the coal ministry:
(a) Whether there is shortage of coal production in the country and as a result some of the States/UTs faced shortage of coal, if so, the details thereof;
(b) The amount of coal imported during the last three years, country-wise and quantum of coal imported from those countries, the details thereof; and
(c) Whether Government proposes to constitute a Committee to look into the steps taken to boost coal production and whether they are actually yielding results, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?
Replying to this, Coal and Mines minister Prahlad Joshi said: that
(a): There is no shortage of coal in the country. The all India coal production in the year 2021-2022 was 778.19 Million tonne in comparison to 716.083 MT in the year 2020-2021. Further, in the current financial year (upto June 22), the country has produced 204.876 MT of coal as compared to 156.11 MT during the same period of last year with a growth of about 31%.
Several critics then asked the government that if there’s no shortage of coal in the country then why is the government importing coal? And why more coal is being imported from Adani coal mines in Australia?
According to a report of Economic Times of July 25, the Indian government is rushing to import coal to ease the supply crunch and businessman Adani.
Seems to be the biggest beneficiary of this winning a huge majority of import orders from state power giant NTPC.
The report citing sources says, New Delhi-based NTPC has placed orders for 20 million tons of imported coal for the fiscal year ending March, of which almost 17.3 million tons have been awarded to Adani Enterprises Ltd. The NTPC has already received about 7 million tons of overseas coal at its plants this year.
In fact, in june this year, the government had asked the state owned coal India limited to be ready to import 12 Million Tonnes of coal for power utilities for the next the 13 months. This was for the first time since 2015 that the Maharatna firm imported the dry fuel.
However, the government said Coal India Limited (CIL) has envisaged to enhance its coal production to 1 Billion Tonne (BT) by the year 2024-25 by taking certain initiatives which are under implementation. It has in its reply listed these initiatives.
Apart from that the government said that its import of coal over the years has only decreased.
According to the data provided by the Government, in the year 2019-20 India in total imported 248.54 MT of coal. Whereas, in the following year it fell to 215.25 MT. In 2021-22 the import of coal fell further to 208.93 MT.
The data also shows that India for the three consecutive years imported more coal from Indonesia, followed by Australia and South Africa.
Meanwhile, after Coal ministry’s reply that there’s no coal shortage in the country, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to direct the power ministry to withdraw its directions to states to expedite coal imports for thermal power plants. AIPEF in a letter sent to the Prime Minister has stressed that the Ministry of Power must be directed to withdraw its orders and directives to the states/state gencos, forcing them to expedite coal imports that were not required/justified in the wake of the coal ministry’s reply in Parliament on July 25. AIPEF has said that in this context now the extra cost of imported coal must be borne by the power ministry.
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