The government has required the State-owned CIL to replace at least 100 million tons (MT) of imports in the current fiscal cycle with domestically produced coal.
Progress comes at a time when, on the one hand, the country has a surplus of domestic coal, while, on the other, demand for the dry fuel is slumping.
“Coal India (CIL) has a mandate of replacing at least 100 MT of imported coal with domestic non-coking coal in the financial year 2020-21,” an official said.
CIL is connecting with unregulated sectors such as sponge iron, cement, aluminum for domestic coal in its bid to replace imports with domestic coal, the official said.
In addition, the PSU also eliminated several additional costs and the the reserve price to nil, the official added.
The country imported 247.1 MT of coal in 2019-20, about five per cent higher than 235.35 MT imported during 2018-19.
Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi had earlier written to state chief ministers asking them not to import the dry fuel and take the domestic supply from CIL, which has the fossil fuel in abundance.
Regardless of the lockdown, the power sector, a main user of coal, is struggling with poor demand, and plants run at lower capacity, rising demand for coal.
The government has announced a slew of measures to boost demand for coal, such as increased supply for linking consumers.
The also announced several relief initiatives for customers at CIL, including the power industry.
The PSU closed the 2019-20 financial year with 602.14 MT of coal production, against the 660 MT target.
This targets 710 MT of coal production in the financial year under way.
