Government examining whether Coal India could facilitate coal imports.

NEW DELHI: The government today said it is assessing whether Coal India, under obligation of supplying a minimum assured quantity of coal to power producers, could facilitate imports of coal through MMTC or STC.

"We are in dialogue as to whether Coal India can facilitate import of coal. So, we would work on that ... we will try to bring an interface... ," Coal Secretary S K Srivastava told reporters after reviewing coal firms output.

"We are working out the modalities that means we will see whether the import will be done by STC or MMTC ... once we will finalise the modalities then only we will be able to give you a figure with regard to CIL," Srivastava said when asked about the quantum of import by coal major.

The government on April 3 issued a Presidential directive to the Maharatna PSU to sign fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with the power producers assuring them of at least 80 per cent of the committed coal delivery.

CIL may have to resort to imports to meet the commitment in case of shortfall in production.

Earlier, CIL Chairman S Narsing Rao had said the PSU would weigh various options of importing coal.

"Coal India may import directly. At the same time there are public sector undertaking like MMTC which are there for a long time in the business. They have expertise...All options we should see if that (import) is inevitable," Rao had said.

Talking about current fiscal's total output, Srivastava said, "There would be production of 464 MT by Coal India and Singareni (SCCL) is also going to put in a dispatch of 54 MT. Captive plants are going to give a dispatch of about 42 MT and other forces are 18 MT, therefore the total dispatch target is 584 MT."

When asked whether the coal ministry was in favour of price pooling mechanism, he said, "We will take a view on it ... as we have to take into account a lot of factors."

Reviewing the performance of CIL, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said the PSU would meet the target of 464 million tonnes for 2012-13.

"Overall, I am satisfied with the performance of Coal India (CIL) ... After seeing the progress in production of the company in the month of April and May, I am hopeful that the PSU firm will achieve its annual target," Jaiswal said.

CIL produced 69.38 MT of coal in April-May this year, registering a growth of 5.6 per cent over the same period in 2011-12.

"The production growth in April and May is 5.6 per cent and the overburden removal growth is 10.3 per cent," the minister said. The coal offtake of CIL during both the months in the current fiscal was 76.53 MT over 72.8 MT in the same period last fiscal

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com