Customers requesting the coal companies to digitalize the process of issuance of DO, minimizing their need to visit coal companies for its collection, and application and payment details submission.
Dhanbad, August 14: Marketing & Sales Director of Coal India Limited (CIL), S.N. Tiwary, in his letter to the Director in-charge of Marketing, BCCL, sought for digitalization of Delivery Order (DO) and systems for effecting refunds against balance quantities under DO.
Customers are requesting the coal companies to digitalize the process of issuance of DO to minimize their need to visit coal companies for application submission, submitting payment details and for collecting DO, he said.
Delay in effecting refunds for unlifted/undelivered quantities of coal against the DO remains the vociferous complaint of our customers, the letter stated. The complains continue to persist despite the repeated advices made to Coal company by CIL, the Coal companies being unable to ascertain even the veracity of the customer’s claim about the refund, as the details of refunds due against the DOs are not known to Subsidiaries HQ even months after the expiry of validity of the respective DO.
While the centralized accounts at Subsidiary HQ level are maintained in respect of dispatches by all modes to Power Sector and by rail mode to other consumers, the account in respect of road dispatches to non-power consumers are maintained only at Area HQ levels at many coal companies, despite the DO being centrally issued from Subsidiary HQ. Thus, the due amount to be refunded to a customer at the close of the validity of DO is not known.
“While ERP is the way forward, a solution in the matter cannot afford to wait till it’s introduced at the respective subsidiaries. It is necessary to have a system in the interim to address the problem until full-fledged implementation of ERP”, SN Tiwary, Director (Marketing & Sales).
A draft modality pertaining to the matter was also attached for the perusal of Subsidiary companies, which included the the following activities:
- Registration of bank account details if customers with coal companies.
- Submission of online application for issue if DO
- Generation of digital DO
- Lifting of coal against the DO
- Closure of DOs and certification of refunds
- Sharing of details of refundable amounts with the consumers
- Information of details of refunds affected
The letter requested the management to put in place a system of communication for the customers through Coal Company’s website and/or through email to address the pressing concerns of the customers that includes the delivery status, balance quantity and balance value against DOs.
“The process of utilizing the balance value for issue of fresh release of coal should be encouraged to avoid reverse cash flow. But, if a customer so desires, the refunds should be made in a definite time frame”, the letter stated.
