While the coal prices are flying high in the domestic markets and consumers are bearing the brunt of shortage, Coal Secretary Dr Anil Kumar Jain on Tuesday said that the country’s dependency on imported thermal coal will come to an end 2024. Jain, who was here in the city for a review meeting with Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, said the country will witness a considerable rise in coal production in the next two financial years. “We are aggressively increasing coal production from our existing mines and also opening new ones to meet the requirement,” he said. He also informed the media persons that Coal India Ltd’s production is expected to be 630-635 million tonnes in the current financial year which will touch 700 million tonnes mark in the following financial year. However, anticipating a rise in the country’s power consumption in the next two years, the Coal Secretary also said that there is a need to move ahead cautiously.

 

India has posted a hike of 12.6 per cent in coal import to 107.34 million tonnes in the first six months of 2021-22. However, Jain said that extended monsoon in the country impacted the coal production which eventually resulted in an increase in imports. Apart from this, Jain said, WCL is exploring opportunities for revision of its fixed charges for coal. “Coal deposits in the WCL’s mines are buried much deeper than the mines in other areas and thus its operational cost is on the higher side.

 

Considering this, we wish to make rate revisions if market conditions are favourable,” he said. It is important to note that CIL has not revised notified rates for coal for the past four to five years. It is worth mentioning here that WCL has recently cut down the quota of non-power industrial units by 50 per cent. But after a huge hue and cry over the matter, the company resorted to a 25 per cent cut. Similarly, WCL has been skipping its monthly spot coal auction for its non-power industrial consumers. It shows that there is a huge mismatch between demand and supply of coal, at least in the region. WCL Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Kumar, its directors, chief vigilance officers and other senior officers were present.