DOMESTIC Competitive pricing of coal to help cut imports, bring efficiency in sector: Official The participation of private players in the coal mining sector will bring efficiency and lead to competitive pricing of the dry fuel, Coal Joint Secretary M Nagaraju said recently. He also said that non-competitive pricing of coal has seen imports of dry fuel rising constantly over the last five to six years. "One reason why imports have been rising regularly in the last 5-6 years is not very competitive pricing in the coal industry in the country," Nagaraju said during the second stakeholders'' consultation on auction of coal mines for commercial mining, organised by Ficci. With the private sector, he said, there will be efficiency and lowering of prices of fossil fuel, which may lead to either completely stop coal imports or drastically reduce it. "There is no reason why we should be importing thermal coal into the country, spending huge amount of money," he said.
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He noted that India is a country which has fourth largest reserves of coal and still it is importing dry fuel. The country imported about 247 million tonnes of coal last fiscal, spending almost around 1.57 lakh crore of foreign exchange, the official said. Nagaraju said once the proposed coal blocks on auction are operationalised, almost 220 million tonnes of dry fuel will be produced every year. Launching the auction of mines for commercial mining, that is expected to garner Rs 33,000 crore of capital investment in the country over next 5-7 years, Modi had said India will win the coronavirus war and turn this crisis into an opportunity, and the pandemic will make India selfreliant.
Better quality, supply resulted in gains of over Rs 3,125 cr: Coal India State-owned CIL has said supply of improved quality coal over committed grades and supply beyond annual contracted quantity have resulted in the PSU gaining over Rs 3,125 crore. "Coal India Ltd's (CIL) concentrated efforts on
