Govt may take final call on coal price pooling tomorrow

The government may take a final decision tomorrow on blending of prices of imported coal and domestically-produced fuel or price pooling of coal.

"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) may meet on April 22 to discuss coal price-pooling," a government official said.

Price-pooling is the averaging of prices of domestic and imported coal to get a uniform feedstock price.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had earlier said the Cabinet will take a view on price-pooling of coal to address the fuel supply issue.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia recently had said that coal pool pricing may lead to revision in power tariffs.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February had approved in-principle the price pooling mechanism.

A final decision on the issue is pending due to differences between the ministries of coal and power on how the impact of higher imported coal prices will be shared between Coal India (CIL) and power companies.

The Prime Minister's Office had earlier directed CIL and Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to work on pooling coal prices to ensure 80 per cent supplies to power plants.