Note on coal price pooling to be placed before CCEA

The Cabinet note on pooling the price of coal through blending domestic fossil fuel with imported coal costs is likely to be placed before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) next month.

“It was further agreed that the note on pooled prices would be placed for CCEA’s consideration by the third week of January,” said the minutes of a meeting, which was held recently under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Pulok Chatterji. The meeting was attended by Coal Secretary S K Srivastava and Power Secretary Uma Shankar, among others.

The Planning Commission had earlier said to offset the impact of high import costs, Coal India (CIL) should adopt a pooling formula on prices by combining the rates of imported and domestic coal.

During the meeting, Chatterji was informed the Central Electricity Authority had worked out the details of the proposed pooling.