Coal India has asked subsidiaries to speed up security deposit refunds under expired fuel supply agreements (FSA) to ease the suffering of consumers over the current lockdown. They were asked by the coal ministry to submit a timeline within which they intend to return these.
In a letter to manufacturing subsidiaries, Coal India noted that years after expiry a number of consumers lodged their grievance over delay in return for security deposit under FSAs. The question was also posed during the interactive session with the non-regulated consumer sector executives.
“It was assured to the consumers that the subsidiary companies would expedite the process of refund of the security deposit or bank guarantee towards security deposit of the consumers’ against these FSAs.
“The issue was also raised by some consumers before the ministry of coal and secretary (coal) expressing his concern over the inordinate delay, had directed that immediate actions should be taken by the coal companies to return the security deposit or bank guarantee against the expired FSAs to the consumers,” the letter mentioned.
Pursuant to FSAs rules, purchasers are allowed to retain security deposit up up to three months from the expiry of the agreement, which subsequently must be returned to the purchaser.
Subsidiary companies are expected to file their claims with customers, if any, within three months of the expiry of the FSAs and are only entitled to retain deposits in the event that the purchasers fail to pay the claims.
It asked them to return such deposits or guarantees to purchasers, in case no claims are pending.
A status report for the month is to be submitted to the ministry by May 3 indicating the number of cases pending, the purpose and the timeframe within which they expect to return them. The Secretary (coal) will review this in the first week of May.
