Coal India plans to substitute 80-85 mt of imported coal in current fiscal

Coal India Ltd is aiming at substituting imported dry fuel of 80-85 million tonne with more domestic supplies in the current fiscal

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State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) is aiming at substituting imported dry fuel of 80-85 million tonne with more domestic supplies in the current fiscal, an official said on Thursday.

The miner has asked power plants in the coastal areas to submit proposals for a gradual increase of its supplies to these units to reduce foreign exchange outgo, the Coal India official said.

"We are expecting to substitute 80-85 million tonne of imported coal this year and have asked the coastal power plants to submit proposals to us and the railways for domestic supplies," CIL director marketing S N Tiwari said at an event organised by mjunction.

The country had imported 248 million tonne of coal in 2019-20, resulting in an outflow of around Rs 1 lakh crore of foreign exchange, the official said.

The government is likely to consider proposals to offer concessions on various counts such as quality and freight to make domestic coal attractive over the imported fuel, he said.

Tiwari said the PSU major remains committed to maintain a steady flow of coal to various entities and has taken a slew of customer-friendly measures.

Duties, royalty and cess account for around 62 per cent of domestic coal price, for which, imports get a comparative advantage, industry sources said.

The country's coal import rose by 11.6 per cent to 19.04 million tonne in September.

With an increase in fuel consumption by thermal power plants and other industries, the shipment mounted to 21.5 million tonne in October as compared to 18.2 million tonne in the same month last year.

However, the overall coal import saw an 18.6 per cent fall to 116.81 million tonne during the April-October period of the current fiscal.