Scindia to meet Jaiswal on Thursday to discuss coal issues

Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will meet Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Thursday to discuss coal quality issues affecting state-run NTPC and Coal India.

"I am meeting Coal Minister on April 18 to discuss the coal quality issue," Scindia told reporters here today.

On whether coal price pooling would be discussed in the meeting, he said that it would be discussed in a separate meeting with Finance Minster P Chidambaram and Coal Minister.
Price pooling is the averaging of prices of domestic and imported coal to get a uniform feedstock price in the country.

The two companies -- Coal India and NTPC -- are at loggerheads over the quality of coal being supplied.

NTPC, which is under the power ministry, has refused to sign fuel supply agreement (FSA) with Coal India citing concerns over quality of fuel.

Coal India's eastern subsidiary earlier this month had stopped supply to NTPC claiming that the power producer had not cleared dues since October 2012.

After government intervention, CIL had restored 50 per cent supplies pending resolution of the issue.

Last week, the heads of two state-run companies met Coal Secretary S K Srivastava to find an amicable solution to the crisis. Also, Coal India had agreed to resume full supplies even as the power producer continued to raise the quality issue.