By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 06, 2018: COAL imports have fallen from 217.78 Mte in 2014-15 to 203.95 Mte. in 2015-16 and further to 190.95 Mte. in 2016-17. The trend of fall in import of coal has continued in 2017-18. As per the statistics released by Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S),during April-October, 2017-18, 118.86 Mte. (Provisional) of coal was imported as compared to 121.14 Mte. in the corresponding period of 2016-17 showing a decline of 1.9%. 

As per the current import policy, coal is kept under Open General License (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal from the source of their choice as per their contractual prices on payment of applicable duty.

Coal India Ltd. (CIL) has also taken various steps for promotion of import substitution through source rationalization with part supply from higher grade coal sources.  Coal from various sources including higher grade were offered through various types of e-auction including special forward e-auction with ease-of-business initiatives like flexi tenure of lifting, reduction of Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) and floor price to cater to requirement of various consumers including Thermal Power Plants (TPPs) not having Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) with CIL sources.

Further, CIL has prepared a provisional calendar for e-auction from August 2017 to March 2018, in which 832.3 Lakh Tonne of coal has been put on offer under Spot, Special Forward and exclusive e-auction.

Next schedule of Linkage Auction (Tentative) is given below:

This Press Release is based on the information given by the Minister of Railways and Coal Mr Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha yesterday.