CONSUMERS’ PAGE

1. Submission by Power Sector for grade determination of unsampled coal quantity as per FSA and process coal value reconciliation:

According to the terms of the tripartite agreement, third-party sampling needs to be done for any quantity of coal supplied to the Power Sector. However, a significant amount of coal supplied from SECL to the Power Sector has been delivered without conducting third-party sampling during FY 2022-23. Even joint sampling was not conducted for the delivered quantity in case the third-party sampling is not done as per the FSA provision.

As a result, many Utilities received a considerable amount of unsampled coal for which reconciliation against grade slippage could not be done. As per the FSA, if coal samples are not collected from a source/despatch point the weighted average of the most recent results available in any preceding month against respective source and coal grade shall be adopted for such dispatches.

Request has been made to SECL and CIL so that grade determination of the unsampled quantity supplied by SECL may be finalised as per FSA provision, based on which Coal valuereconciliation may be carried out for the delivered quanti- ty and credit/debit notes may be issuedaccordingly.

2. Request for the extention of time between uploading of offers for CPP Sub-sector and the commencement date of the auction:

As per the notification for Tranche-VI NRS Linkage Auction for the CPP Sub-sector, the consumers had only one week between the uploading of the offer document and the commencement of the auction which was not sufficient as the decision regarding participating and booking coal in the auctions involves many levels of strategy, review, and approvals that also entail documentation formalitieswhich require considerable time.

Request has been made to CIL to provide at least 3-4 weeks between uploading the offer document and the commencement of the auction so that all the requisite formalities may be completed in due course

3. Submission regarding increase in prices of different grades of ROM coal from SCCL in 2023:

The basic prices of different grades of Run-of Mine coal (G1-G17) supplied to both Power and Non-power Sector from SCCL have been hiked three times between 08.02.2023 to 01.05.2023. Also, the prices of washery grade coal (WG 6-WG 13) supplied to both Power and NRS consumers have also been hiked by Rs. 100/tonne during that period. Meanwhile, the price of lower grade coal has been hiked Rs. 300/tonnew.e.f 01.05.2023.

The price hike this year has been on top of the hiked price of SCCL coal where ROM coal prices were hiked seven times for the Power Sector and Six times for the NRS between August’21 to June ’22 period. Such frequent and steep hike in coal prices is putting a huge financial burden on the consumers of SCCL.

Request has been made to SCCL not to hike coal prices repeatedly within a short period. It is also requested to consider rolling back the hiked price of coal as notified on 01.05.2023.

4. Submission by Captive Power Plants to increase offered quantity from MCL in Tranche-VI NRS Linkage Auction for CPP Sub-sector:

Total quantity of coal offered from different collieries of MCL is 4 million tonnes. However, consumers from the CPP sub-sector have requested to increase the offered quantity from the said subsidiary to 6-7 million tonnes as coal produced in MCL is especially suitable for usage in the power plants.

Request has been made to CIL to increase the offered quantity of coal from MCL under the Tranche-VI NRS Linkage Auction for CPP Subsector to the extent possible.

5. Submission by NRS consumers for early release of long-pending rakes and increase in daily rake supply from WCL, SECL & CCL:

Despite accelerated demand of coal among the Industries, supply of allotted rakes from a number of CIL subsidiaries have been pending for a long period. For instance, several rakes allotted to Non-regulated Sector from WCL, CCL and SECL have been pending since long.As per estimation, nearly 500 rakes have been pending from WCL, more than 450 rakes have been pending from CCL and more than 1900 rakes have been pending from SECL for despatch to various NRS Sub-sectors.

Such a significant pendency in rake supply to the NRS consumers has led to a coal crunch for the Industries procuring from these subsidiaries amid increasing demand while meagre supply of daily allotted rakes to the NRS have further compounded the crisis. Also the coal value submitted by the affected consumers against the pending rakes are stuck for a prolonged period.

Request has been made to CIL and the respective subsidiaries to immediately release the long-pending rakes allotted to the Non-power Sector from the above-mentioned CIL subsidiaries. It is also requested that daily rake supply to the NRS consumers from these subsidiaries may kindly be increased in order to ease out the crisis.

6. Request by NRS consumers for supply of coal via rail mode through rakes procured under GPWIS:

It has been pointed out by certain consumers from the Non-regulated Sector that despite fulfilling all the criteria and making huge investment for procurement of General Purpose Wagons under the GPWIS Scheme introduced in 2018, they are not able to transport coal via rail mode in spite of having the privately owned wagons as majority of the rakes are being despatched to Power Sector.

It is known that supply of rakes to the Industries from different CIL subsidiaries have been extremely meagre since the last year. Though the supply situation to the NRS had shown signs of improvement during winter, movement of rakes to the industries have again shrunk since the last few months. On top of that, non- supply of coal even through the privately owned wagons have further aggravated coal crunch for the Industries.

Request has been made to Railway Board release the rakes owned by the NRS consumers under the GPWIS Scheme at the earliest possible.

7. Submission to expedite NRS Linkage Auction under Tranche – VI for Captive Power Plants (CPPs) by Coal

India Ltd:

Demand of coal in the Industries including their CPP units has also accelerated in recent months. Though supply to the NRS has increased in the past few months, coal despatch is still insufficient compared to their requirement. This has led them to purchase coal from the open market by paying a hefty premium and import coal from different sources, putting huge financial burden especially on the Captive Power Plants.

Request has been made to MoC and CIL to conduct the Tranche- VI NRS Linkage Auction for CPP Sub-sector at the earliest possible.