Abolish 5% Duty On Coal Imports: Shinde.

With acute coal shortage of domestic coal threatening to destabilise its power generation plans, the power ministry has demanded that the government abolish the custom duty of 5 per cent in the coming Budget on imports of the mineral.

In a note to the government on February 11 last, the power ministry pointed out that coal-starved power plants are increasingly securing thermal coal from abroad, the imports of which has shot up to 23.2 million tonnes (MT) in 2009-10 against 16 MT in 2008-09. It argued that with domestic coal in short supply, the utilities have sustained a whooping generation loss of 5.3 billion units in 2010-11 (April-December).

“The problem is likely to aggravate from 2011-12 in view of inadequate availability of coal from Coal India Limited (CIL) and limitations in blending beyond 10-15 per cent of the total consumption. CIL officials have told the Plan Panel in a meeting on January 27 last that of the total demand of 480 MT in 2011-12, they can only supply 319 MT. This further compounds our problem,” the ministry contended.

Source : indianexpress.com