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Consumers' Page
Present Coal Scenario:
Coal Production by national miner Coal India Limited in March’22 grown significantly compared to last month. CIL’s total production for the month was 80.26 MT compared to 64.26 MT in February ’22. However, the monthly production figures have been marginally lower than the same month previous year (81.13 MT). CIL ‘s total production in this fiscal has been 622.64 MT which is nearly 4.5% higher than the same period last year. Coal despatch by all CIL Subsidiaries combined for March’22 has been 62.04 MT, higher than 60.06 MT in March ’21. The coal dispatch figures for CIL have grown from 58.80 MT in February. The Maharatna Company has dispatched 661.89 MT of coal so far in the ongoing fiscal, which has steadily increased from 574.48 MT in the same period in previous fiscal, a growth of more than 15%.
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Issues faced by both Power and Non-power Sector:
Various forms of refunds from different Subsidiary Coal Companies of CIL including refund of additional coal value advance, BGs related to financial coverage and performance security, EMDs, pending credit notes on account of grade slippage, refund of security deposit against expired FSAs etc have been pending since long.
As a result, huge amounts of funds of both Utilities and Industries are stuck with the coal companies. Details of various forms of pending refunds from different CIL Subsidiaries to both Power and Non-power Sector consumers have been prepared in a tabular format and sent to MoC and CIL. Almost every customer of CIL has a certain amount of refund pending on various grounds from the said sources. Request has been made to the Ministry of Coal and CIL to take adequate steps to ensure immediate processing of all the long-pending refunds so that the Industries may be saved from the financial ordeal.
2. Submission regarding complete or partial roll back of price increase of different grades of coal by SCCL as notified in January 2022:
Prices of different grades of coal (G-1 to G17) supplied by SCCL including the Washery Grades have been increased multiple times in the ongoing financial year. SCCL coal prices for different grades of coal have been revised 5 (five) times in total in the FY 2021-22. Such a recurrent and steep hike in coal prices is putting a huge financial burden on the coal consumers dependent on SCCL.
Request has been made to the Ministry of Coal and SCCL to consider either complete or at least partial roll- back of the hiked coal price as notified by the company on 10.01.2022.
3. Request for not levying Composition User Fee on consumers operating within state of Jharkhand:
The road construction department of Government of Jharkhand has levied Composition User Fee (CUF), for use of State roads and/or bridges including interchanges, flyovers, ROB/ RUB, by-passes and tunnels thereon in mining areas, at the rate of Rs 600 per trip (Rs 1200 per round trip) from the mineral transporting vehicles.
This fee should be levied on commercial vehicle owners/transport operators but CCL has decided to pay CUF on behalf of the transporters for the period 26/10/2021 to 15/04/2022 which shall be recovered from the consumers, at the rate of Rs 60 (sixty) per tonne, as an additional charge as Reimbursement of CUF which shall be included as an additional component in the coal sale bill.
Request has been made to the Central Coalfields Limited not to levy any additional charges/taxes on the coal bill in retrospective effect. It is also earnestly requested to consider not levying the aforementioned charge (CUF) on the consumers.
4. Submission to prioritise loading and supply of rakes to long-distance consumers from ECR:
As per the Railway circular regarding Preferential Traffic Order GO 95 issued on 30.03.2021, the Zonal Railways is obligated to provide special facilities or preference to transport coal and coke including all variants (except pet coke) loaded from a siding to the consumers located at a long distance (more than 600 kms) irrespective of priority and date of registration on all days of the week except the two nominated days. However, East Central Railway (ECR) is not giving priority to the long-distance consumers and supplying indents to the Utilities as per the order of seniority only.
Submission has been made to ECR so that preferential loading and dispatch of rakes to the long distance consumers may be prioritised by ECR in accordance with the Railway circular.
5. Submission by Power Sector re- grading supply of lower grade coal and coal mixed with stones, boulders from NCL:
Quality of coal supplied from the DWWS, GCNM, SPUS sidings of NCL are often much lower than the declared grades. Supply of lower grade coal leads to lower capacity utilization and in turn increases the overall cost of power generation. Also rakes supplied from various sidings of NCL have quality issues as the coal is mixed with oversized stones and boulders which reduce the plant efficiency and increase ash load in the downstream. Further this leads to higher aver- age rake retention time (more than 8 Hours) in spite of usage of faster unloading methods through wagon tipplers. Request has been made to NCL to reduce the presence of extraneous materials from coal to the extent possible and ensure supply of FSA –grade coal to the consumers from the sidings mentioned.
Issues faced by Non-power Sector Consumers:
6. Submission by NRS Consumers to immediately improve supply of coal rakes to the Industries:
Supply of coal to NRS consumers via Rail mode has significantly deteriorated again while Road mode supply has also been hampered as preference is given to Power Sector via Road-cumRail (RcR mode). Such scarce supply of fuel for a prolonged period has led to catastrophic consequences for many Industries such as Aluminum, Cement, Steel, Sponge-Iron, Paper, Fertilizer, Chemical, Rayon, Textile etc. and their Captive Power Plants (CPPs). Due to dearth of supply in FSA and e-Auction quantities, many NRS consumers are compelled to procure coal from the open market by paying 3-4 times of the premiums under the current predicament. In recent months, premiums of spot auction have indicated a mismatch in demand-supply situation for the industries with more than 300% premium over the floor price. Request has been made to the Ministry of coal, CIL and its Subsidiaries to ensure sufficient supply of coal to the Industries by releasing pending rakes, conducting spot and exclusive auctions more frequently and offering more quantity in the e-auction and linkage auctions at the earliest possible.
7. Submission for immediate issuance of pending DOs against Linkage quantity from different sidings of SECL:
Significant amount of linkage quantities to be supplied to the Industries have been kept pending since last year from a number of SECL sidings including Baroud, Jampali etc as the Road Delivery Orders (RDOs) against the offered quantities have not been issued yet. However, SECL is offering coal through Spot e-Auctions via Road Mode from the same sources this month. SECL is already offering coal only at trigger level. On top of that, offering Linkage quantities under Spot e-Auction would be an additional financial burden for these consumers as they would have to pay high premiums to procure coal while already having valid FSAs. Submission has been made to SECL and CIL for immediate issuance of pending DOs to the Industries against their Linkage quantity so that the consumers may sustain themselves by procuring coal via Road mode.
8. Submission by NRS Consumers regarding extension of RDO validity issued from specific areas of WCL:
The daily dispatch plan to the Industries has been revised based on area-wise commitments under Linkage Auction FSAs, Spot and Exclusive auctions from 25.03.2022. While the total daily dispatch quantity to Industries from WCL has been kept unchanged, the revision has caused the average daily dispatch mainly from Ballarpur, Wani North, Nagpur and Pench (also Kanhan and Pathakhera) areas to reduce. Requests have been made to WCL and CIL to extend the RDO validity of the areas of WCL where the daily coal dispatch quantity has been reduced in order to revise the daily dispatch plan by Road to the Non-power Sector.
9. Submission by NRS Consumers regarding refund of EMDs and Royalties against lapsed DO quantities from SECL:
Industries securing coal under Spot e-Auctions from SECL’s Chhal, Bijari OCP in 2021, could not procure the allotted quantities due to various reasons such as non-availability of designated grade of coal (G-10, G15), frequent breakdown of weighbridges, irregular movements of loading vehicles, poor coal evacuation arrangements etc. As a result, despite high coal demand, only a small portion of the allotted DO quantities could be lifted by these Industries and the rest quantity got lapsed. The consumers had already paid EMD for participating in the Spot Auctions but in spite of lapsing of huge DO quantities, the EMD amount worth crores of rupees has not been refunded. Request has been made to SECL and CIL to process the refund of EMDs and Royalties against lapsed DO quantities at the earliest.
