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Consumers' Page
Present Coal Scenario:
Despite incessant rainfall across many parts of India, national miner Coal India Limited’s monthly production of the dry fuel for July ’21 has increased by 2.6 Million tonnes compared to previous month while monthly coal offtake has seen a slight decrease. CIL’s total coal production for the month was 42.6 MT, which was 14.1% higher than Jul ’20. For the period of April ’21 to July ’21, CIL’s accumulative coal production has been 166.6 MT, more than 5% higher than the same period last year that was hit hard by the pandemic.
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The coal behemoth’s total coal offtake for July ’21 was 50.5 MT registering a major growth of 16.9% compared to the production figures of Jul ’20. For the period of April ’21 to July ’21, CIL’s total offtake has been 210.8 MT. The offtake for this financial year has been over 28% higher than the same period previous year.
Issues faced by both Power and Non-power Sector Consumers:
1. Request for extension of timeline for lifting of coal (RDOs) for both Power and Non-power sector:
Both Utilities and Industries were not able to procure coal within the RDO validity due to various reasons including outbreak of pandemic, lack of transport vehicles and drivers, lack of manpower for loading and unloading of coal, incessant rain etc.
Multiple representations were given to the Ministry of coal and CIL for extending the validity of RDOs originally expiring in May ’21 till end of July ’21.
CIL has extended the timeline for lifting of coal till 20th July, 2021.
2. Request for early issuance of longpending credit notes and coal value reconciliation for Road- mode consumers by SECL:
Inordinate delay in reconciliation of excess coal value against quantity despatched through Road mode by SECL has been a point of major financial concern for both Utilities and Industries as large amount of their fund has been stuck with SECL for a long period.
Request has been made to SECL and CIL to ensure immediate issuance of pending credit notes and reconciliation of coal bills against procurement of coal through Road mode.
3. Submission regarding further deterioration in quality of coal supplied from Salanpur and Mugma area of ECL:
As per the Power sector consumers, quality of coal supplied from ECL Salanpur and Mugma sidings through Rail mode further deteriorated during MayJune ’21 as coal supplied from these two sidings were 6-7 grades lower than the declared grade.
Though one or two collieries under Salanpur and Mugma are producing better quality coal, supply from most of the other collieries from these two areas are of much lower grade containing of high amount of shale and other substances.
Request has been made to ECL and CIL to take necessary measures to improve the coal quality supplied from these two areas as Power producers procuring coal from ECL, largely depend on supply from these sidings.
4. Request for reimbursement of idle freight on account of under-loading alongwith GST
Certain Subsidiary Coal Companies (CCL, NCL & ECL) are providing refund of idle freight alongwith GST components charged by the Railways to the Power Utilities but others such as SECL, MCL and WCL are not reimbursing the GST amount during refund of idle freight.
Request has been made to CIL so that all Subsidiary coal companies reimburse the idle freights for under-loading along with the GST amount.
5. Continuous and significant shortreceipt of coal from MCL’s Talcher Spur (I-VI) Sidings:
Power sector consumers have been facing difficulties due to continuous and significant short-receipt of coal from Spur (I to VI) sidings of Talcher coalfields at MCL over the last few months mostly due to faulty weighment at the bi-directional weighbridges in the areas.
Meetings have been held with MCL authorities at the headquarters and area GMs of Bhubaneswari and Jagannath mines. Request has been made for recalibration of weighbridges where the issue of shortreceipt has been frequent.
The MCL authorities have promised to look into the matter with utmost gravity. MCL has undertaken the inspection of the status of weighbridges in the Spur sidings and also made arrangement for weigh-
ing empties and loaded rakes separately as much as possible. MCL has also requested to send the company representatives or handling agents of the affected organisations to the concerned areas of MCL to witness the weighment of rakes and hold discussions.
6. Submission to SECL for refund of huge coal value against lapsed quantities and EMD:
In spite of extending the validity of RDOs and the period of coal lifting by CIL, a number of consumers especially from the Power sector procuring coal from SECL, could only manage to lift a portion of their allotted quantities while the remaining portion got lapsed due to various reasons such as, unavailability of declared grade of coal, adverse weather conditions for production of coal, less production of auctioned grade of coal due to geological disturbance in mines which are beyond the control of the consumers.
Request has been made to SECL to refund the coal value against lapsed quantity and EMD to the concerned customers at the earliest possible.
7. Appeal on behalf of NRS consumers regarding urgent requirement of Tranche-V Linkage Auction for Subsectors except Sponge-iron subsector:
The Tranche-V of NRS Linkage Auction for the Sponge Iron sub-sector was conducted in December, 2019, Linkage Auction of Non-coking coal for the rest of the Sub-sectors under Tranche-IV, was last held way back in November- December, 2018.
This delay in conducting Tranche-V of NRS Linkage Auction for CPP, Cement and Others Sub-sectors has made the functioning of a large number of Industries extremely difficult due to uncertainty over long- term coal supply commitment.
Request has been made to CIL to conduct the Tranche-V of NRS Linkage Auction for rest of the Sub- sectors at the earliest possible and announce the tentative timeline for the Linkage auction well in advance so that the Industries may plan accordingly for long-term procurement of coal.
8. Submission regarding immediate release of pending BGs for the terminated FSAs:
For certain consumers from the Non-power sector, most of the FSAs with SECL’s Baroud OCP & MahanII OCP have been terminated in 2021 while cumulative Bank Guarantee (BG) amounts worth lakhs of rupees are yet to be released by the coal company.
Request has been made to SECL to immediately release the entire BG amount at the earliest possible.
Consumers from the Non-power sector procuring coal from different Subsidiaries, especially ECL are not getting sufficient supply of coal as the last Exclusive e-auction was last held by the Subsidiary in March '21. Due to high demand of coal in the Power sector even auction rakes are pending for the Nonpower sector since long.
Request has been made to ECL to release the pending rakes to NRS consumers at the earliest possible. It is also requested that the Exclusive e-Auction may be conducted on a bi-monthly basis in order to cater to the need of the Industries.
10. Requesting refund of Security Deposit against terminated FSAs:
Certain NRS Consumers procuring coal from different Subsidiaries have not been getting the refund of Security Deposit made by them against their FSA by Road Mode that has been terminated earlier this year.
Request has been made to CIL and the Subsidiaries for early release of the Security Deposit to the respective companies, whose FSAs have expired.
