Consumers' Page

Submissions by both Power and NRS consumers:

1. Representation by both Power and NRS consumers regarding various forms of pending refunds:

Various forms of refunds pertaining to coal consumers across the board including operational refund such as, refund of advance coal value, refund of advalorem taxes, security depots, EMD/BGs, differential CST amounts and abnormal underloading /overloading charges and coal quality related refund such as differential coal value in case of grade slippage, excess surface moisture in coal and supply of ungraded coal have been pending since long from different CIL Subsidiaries.

Submission has been made to CIL for its Subsidiaries to expedite these refunds to the respective consumers. In case there is no definite timeline articulated in the FSA for disbursement of such refunds, a suitable time frame may be included in the FSAs

. Submission by Power sector

consumers:

2. Submission regarding continuous and significant short receipt of coal from SECL and ECL sidings:

Power sector consumers have raised concern regarding continuous and significant short-receipt of coal in rakes loaded from SECL’s Kusmunda area sidings and ECL’s Sonepur Bazari sidings. Shortages in all the rakes loaded from Old Kusmunda (OKSR) and New Kusmunda (NKCR) sidings in January-February 2021 have increased to as high as 4% while shortage in rakes loaded from the ECL siding is found to be around 5.5% even after recalibration of weighbridges enroute.

Such recurrent short-receipt is leading to huge financial loss for Power generators. Requests have been made to SECL and ECL to take appropriate measures including ensuring proper loading of rakes and recalibration of weighbridges to eradicate the problem.

3. Submission regarding inferior quality of coal supplied from various ECL sidings:

Coal supplied from various collieries of Salanpur area namely Bonjomehari, Dabor, Mohonpur, Begunia, Gourandih, Itapara are 4-5 grade lower than the declared grade leading to enormous financial loss to power generators.

Request has been made to ECL to ensure supply of the declared grade of coal to these power generators.

4. Submission regarding sizeable difference in RR weight and coal bills for rakes despatched by SECL:

Power sector consumers procuring coal from SECL’s Korba coalfields have stated that they are concerned regarding the sizable difference in RR weight and coal bills being raised by SECL for despatches since the last couple of months.

Request has been made to SECL to take adequate measures so that the issue can be taken care of at the earliest possible.

5. Submission by regarding discrepancy in refund of idle freight:

Power Utilities are entitled for refund of idle freight from the coal companies in case of underloading of rakes as per FSA provision 10.2 for the Power sector. However, in reality there is a significant difference in refund amount between the FSA provision and actual refund provided by Subsidiaries. Also, certain Subsidiaries do not return the GST component alongwith the refund amount to the consumers.

Request has been made to CIL for appropriate amount of refund for idle freight in case of underloading and reimburse the GST amount alongwith the actual refund of freight charges paid by consumers.

Submission by NRS consumers:

6. Submission regarding allowing change of mode of supply from Road to Rail by SECL:

A number of CIL Subsidiaries have immediately extended the facility for allowing the dispensation of change of mode of supply from Road to Rail under FSA through NRS linkage auction route to the NRS consumers since November'20. However, in spite of repeated requests made by the NRS consumers no notification has been issued by SECL in this regard.

Many SECL consumers have been penalised for short-lifting as they were not able to procure coal by Road Mode during the nationwide lockdown period. Hence, submission has been made to SECL to allow the change of mode from Road to Rail at the earliest.

7. Request for not imposing penalty for short-lifting from Wani Siding for NRS FSA consumers:

A number of NRS consumers procuring coal from WCL are not able to lift allotted quantity from the Subsidiary’s Wani sidings as

a) The offered G13 grade of coal is not suitable for direct feed to the boilers and needs to be blended with high grade imported coal making it unviable for the plant.

b) In order to lift 75% of ACQ from Wani siding as per the FSA clause, the consumers need to lift a huge number of rakes within less than 2 months which may not be feasible due to shortage in storage capacity.

c) The coal price structure of Neeljay OCM, the newly introduced feeding source of Wani siding, is yet to be sent to the consumers.

Request has been to WCL for not penalizing the consumers for short-lifting as contracted grade of was coal was not available from Wani sidings during most of the FY2020-21.