FinMin taking up the issue of CIL dues: Jaiswal

As many as 44 firms are yet to clear their dues, even as the govt is mulling to sell 5% stake in the miner

The finance ministry is looking into the issue of power companies’ Rs 11,195-crore dues to Coal India (CIL), said coal minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal. As many as 44 companies are yet to clear their dues, even as the government is mulling to sell five per cent stake in the miner.

“The unpaid dues of Coal India is a serious issue and is being taken up,” the coal minister added.

According to sources, the miner recently met finance ministry officials for the same.Power utilities such as NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation  have been withholding payments to CIL over a dispute on calorific value and new grades of pricing. A few state utilities have also cited fund crunch as a reason for not clearing bills.

NTPC alone accounts for Rs 4,107 crore of the dues. After the recent quality row between CIL and NTPC, the two parties had settled on third party sampling as a solution.

DVC owes an additional Rs 1,084 crore to CIL. In the state sector, West Bengal Power Development Corporation is yet to pay Rs 1,695 crore. The issue was raised by coal secretary S K Srivastava in a letter to power secretary P K Sinha in August.

However, a senior NTPC executive said the issue over quality is being resolved. Last month, the power ministry had suggested in a letter to its coal counterpart that an independent agency such as Central Fuel Research Institute can be selected for third party sampling.

The power ministry’s suggestion came after Central Electricity Authority, the ministry’s technical wing, received several representations from power utilities regarding grade slippages due to improper sampling procedure adopted by coal companies resulting in steep hike in power tariff.