Odisha seeks 0.1 mn tonne coal allotment for MSMEs

To feed the coal consuming MSME units, the state government has recommended the Coal India Limited (CIL) for allocation of 108,000 tonne of coal for 2014-15.

The MSME department has made this recommendation to CIL after assessing the annual requirement of the MSMEs made by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Bhubaneswar, the nodal agency for raw material distribution.

Sources said that Fuel Supply Agreement with CIL will be signed by April end.

"Government have been pleased to nominate NSIC, a Government of India enterprise, Bhubaneswar as the state nodal agency for supply of coal to the coal consuming units of the state for the financial year 2014-15 and have accorded permission for allocation of 108000 mt of coal to NSIC, Bhubaneswar for the financial year 2014-15", Fagurma Marandi, joint secretary , MSME department, wrote to General manager (sales and marketing), CIL.

NSIC was allocated 75000 tonnes of coals in the last financial year for distribution among the coal-consuming MSMEs. The coal requirement of a MSME unit is calculated by a joint capacity assessment made by concerned District Industries Centre and MSME Development Institute under the Ministry of MSME (Micro,Small & Medium Enterprise), Government of India.

After the requirement of coal of the unit is determined, DIC general manager recommends the case to the specified state-nominated agency for distribution of fuel with the approval of the district collector.

There are about 57 coal consuming units in the state that includes refractories, casting units, chemical units, coal briquettes, textile units etc.

It may be noted that the nodal agency NSIC has been effectively handling the supply of coal to the MSME units in the state after busting of a scam in this regard in 2010 which related to siphoning of crores of rupees through supply of coal at concessional rate to bogus small scale industries.

This had snowballed into a major controversy with the alleged involvement of two ministers- then minister for housing and urban development Badri Narayan Patra and former minister for school and mass education Pratap Jena.

Patra and Jena had served as chairman of the Odisha Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) between 2004 and 2009 before being appointed as ministers.