Consumers' Page

Issues faced by both Power and NRS Consumers:

1. Request for extension of lifting period of coal through Road mode:

The lifting period of coal at all the Subsidiary coal companies were extended by CIL multiple times in 2021 in view of the pandemic situation which led to massive disruption in road transport, dearth of vehicles and drivers and blockade in inter-state communication due to complete or partial lockdown in different states. Though the situation had improved further, it would have been almost impossible for many consumers to lift the allotted quantity from various CIL Subsidiaries within the extended time.

Request has been made to CIL to extend the facility to lift coal against RDOs for both Power and NRS consumers for FSAs and e-Auction Quantities.

2. Request for early issuance of longpending credit notes and coal value reconciliation for Road-mode consumers by SECL:

CInordinate 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.

Issues faced exclusively by Power sector consumers:

3. Submission by Power Sector consumers regarding huge grade slippage in coal supplied from specific ECL sidings:

Despite temporary improvement in the quality of coal supplied to the Power Utilities from various ECL sidings during February-March’21, the issue of significant grade slippage started reoccurring in the rake supplied from ECL’s Salanpur and Mugma sidings where grade variation to the tune of 4-6 grades could be observed. This led to massive financial loss to the Power sector consumers.

It has been stated by ECL that through conducting Quality Awareness Week, continuous monitoring and strict vigil on third party sampling have been implemented to eradicate the problem of grade slippage.

Representation swere given to ECL, CIL and the Ministry of coal so that measures could be taken to ensure supply of requisite grade as per FSA to the customers of ECL.

4. Submission by Power sector regarding continuous and significant shortreceipt of coal from Spur Sidings of MCL:

Power Sector consumers procuring coal from MCL have been facing the issue of continuous and significant short-receipt of coal supplied from MCL’s Talcher Spur sidings for several months. There has been short receipt to the tune of around 4% in rakes supplied from Talcher area’s Spur- I & II sidings during April and May’21, while short receipt from Spur-III & IV and Spur V & VI sidings has been around 3% - 6% during the same period. Request has been made to MCL and CIL to take up corrective steps including rectifying or replacing the existing weighbridges at the Spur sidings with the new ones as per RDSO guidelines in order to prevent the short-supply.

5. Request for not calculating compensation towards short-lifting for deemed delivered quantity against carry forward rakes of Power Utilities:

Inspite of the provision to carry forward the lapse drake swhich could not be supplied to the Power sector consumers due to production issue / Railway constraints, Utilities procuring coal from SECL stated that due to continue ddemand-supply mismatch and Railway constraints including unavailability of rakes, backlog of carry forward rakes have continued to accumulate.

Thus, the consumers are not getting supply of their value paid rakes allotted to them for an indefinite period which leads to significant financial loss.

Request has been made to SECL and CIL so that option may be offered to the generators not to carry forward rakes which already have huge pendency.

Also, the carry forward rakes which are not supplied to the generators because of production issue / Railway constraints are not taken in the calculation of compensation for short-lifting against deemed delivered quantity.

Issues faced exclusively by the NRS Consumers:

6. Appeal on behalf of NRS consumers regarding urgent requirement of Tranche-V Linkage Auction for Sub-

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.

7. Request by NRS consumers for inclusion of certain WCL mines in rest of Tranche-V NRS Linkage Auctions:

The consumers from Cement, CPP and Other Sub-sectors procuring coal from WCL have requested for the Tranche-V of NRS Linkage Auction for their respective sub-sectors to be conducted immediately and mentioned certain WCL mines including Ballarpur, Tawa I & II, Chattarur I & II in Pathakera area, Nehariya and Urdhan sidings in Pench area and Singhori and Gondegaon sidings in Nagpur area to be including in the upcoming linkage auction.

The requests have been percolated to the WCL authorities.

8. Immediate requirement of coal from ECL for NRS consumers through Exclusive e-Auction:

Exclusive e-Auction for the Non-power Sector (including CPPs) is generally held on a bimonthly basis by ECL. The auction was last held on 30th March, 2021 and Non-power sector consumers without having Linkage auction FSAs prefer to procure coal through Exclusive e-Auction.

Request has been made to ECL to conduct an Exclusive e-Auction for the NRS consumers at the earliest possible and also ensure that Exclusive auctions can be held regularly on a monthly/bi-monthly basis so that the Industries do not suffer from dearth of fossil fuel.

9. Submission for reviewing the provision of taking additional advance by NCL from NRS consumers availing Usance LC mode of payment:

While availing the Usance LC payment option in Rail mode, NRS consumers have to deposit an advance amount equivalent to seven(7) days coal value and a Financial Coverage amount equivalent to 10 days coal value over and above the LC amount.

However, Consumers procuring coal from NCL via Rail mode have pointed out that in addition to the above payments, they also have to deposit a fresh advance to the coal company to ensure that the balanceadvance payment always remains equivalent to not less than onemonth coal value for availing Usance LC modeof payment, which is not levied on the consumers procuring coal from other CIL Subsidiaries. This practice is defeating the very purpose of Usance LC.

Request has been made to NCL so that the matter of keeping aditional advance value of one month MSQ (ACQ/12 and converted to no. of rakes) fromNRS consumers procuring coal through Rail Mode from NCL may kindly be considered so that the payment schedule is in conformity with the Usance LC norms formulated by CIL.