Kolkata: The coal ministry wants the finance ministry to reduce the 5.1% import duty on thermal coal and continue with the existing zero import duty on coking coal to enable larger import by power and steel sectors.
According to a coal ministry official, while the steel sector’s demand for coking coal is expected to go up by another 18-20% in 2010-11, Coal India Ltd (CIL), which currently meets 82% of the power sector’s thermal coal demand, will not be able to keep pace with the power sector’s incremental need because of hurdles in developing new mining projects. So the ministry wants to encourage the power sector to go for larger imports, the official said.
The ministry has asked CIL to give its opinion on the issue after which it will put forward its proposal to the finance ministry but CIL has not given any comments so far, the official said.
According to sources, the Australian government has requested the coal ministry to lobby for reducing the import duty on thermal coal and persist with the zero import duty on coking coal, since it (the Australian government) foresees an opportunity to supply more coal to India from Australia.
An Australian trade commission delegation, which recently came to India, presented a paper to the coal ministry saying reducing the import duty of thermal coal and keeping the zero import duty on coking coal intact would not only strengthen bilateral ties but would also enhance the availability of affordable inputs for two Indian infrastructure industry-power and steel.
The trade commission pointed out that coking coal import, which was 12 million tonne in 2006-07 from Australia, would touch 18-20 mt in 2010-2011 and 25 mt by 2012, taking into account India’s steel capacity addition.
While Australia has its share only in India’s coking coal space, Indonesia commands the thermal coal space. Australia wants to make an entry into the thermal coal space, since imports of thermal coal are likely to go up, the ministry official said. The ministry estimated that import of coking and thermal coal together would be around 62.75mt by the end of 2009-2010, of which thermal coal would be around 40 mt. In 2008-09, India’s total thermal coal imports were 37.92 mt and coking coal 21.08 mt. However, CIL, the country’s largest producer of coal, had no plans to import any coal in 2009-10 but the Planning Commission has
Kolkata: asked it to import 4mt of thermal coal in 2010- 2011 for NTPC.
CIL is yet to take a decision on the planning commission’s order. CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya said CIL required an undertaking from NTPC that it would lift the entire 4 mt, which CIL will import. Both the parties are yet to arrive at a consensus on the issue.
Source : Financial Express