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Consumers' Page
Present Coal Scenario:
Amid significant coal mismatch in coal demand and supply scenario affecting both Power and Non-power Sectors, national miner Coal India Limited’s production and offtake figures dwindled marginally in September compared to the previous month. Total production of CIL for the month was 40.70 MT, which was 0.4% higher than September’20. For the period of April ’21 to September’21, CIL’s cumulative coal production has been 249.80 MT, more than 5% higher than the same period last year that was hit hard by the pandemic. Coal offtake by the Maharatna Company has also decreased marginally than August to 48.60 MT. However, the monthly offtake figure was marginally higher than September last year. Considering the period of April ’21 to September’21, CIL’s total offtake has been 307.7 MT, more than 50 MT more than the same period last year.
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Issues faced by both Power and NRS Consumers:
1. Request for refund of EMD for lapsed quantity from SECL mines for Road mode consumers:
Both Power and NRS consumers procuring coal from Chhal, Dipka OC, Chirimiri, Bhatgaon, Kusmunda and other collieries of SECL by Road mode were unable to lift the entire quantity as per DO due to multiple reasons such as nonavailability of coal, unfavorable conditions for coal lifting and dispatch and frequent breakdown of weighbridges. This led to forfeiture of EMD for consumers procuring through different auctions like Exclusive, Special Forward and Spot e-Auctions.
As the reasons for non-lifting of coal are beyond the control of the consumers, request has been made to CIL and SECL to provide refund of forfeited EMD amounts against un-lifted quantity of coal.
2. Submission by Power Sector Consumers for refund of GST amount alongwith reimbursement of idle freight on account of underloading:
A number of CIL subsidiaries are providing refund against idle freight alongwith GST components charged by the Railways. However for consumers procuring coal from SECL, the refund of GST amount is not happening during the reimbursement provided for idle freight.
Request has been made to CIL and SECL so that adequate measures may be taken at the earliest possible in order to provide reimbursement of GST amounts along with refund on account of underloading.
3. Submission regarding constant overloading of rakes from Spur sidings of Talcher Area and Sardega Mines of MCL:
Power consumers have raised concern over continuous overloading of rakes from Talcher Spur sidings and Sardega mines of MCL since the last few months. Some of these consumers have to pay significant punitive charges amounting to crores of rupees to the Railways on account of overloading of rakes during August ’21. Also, rakes are detained for load adjustment for a long time.
Request has been made to MCL to ensure proper loading of rakes in order to eradicate the issue of overloading in future.
4. Submission regarding unusually higher grade of coal received by Power sector consumer as per 3rd Party analysis report from SECL:
As per 3rd party analysis of a rake supplied to a Power Utility from SECL's Junadih Public-Silo during July ’21, the analyzed grade of coal was G7. However, the feeding mine of Junadih Public-Silo is Gevra OC, where the effective grade of Gevra OC is G11. Also, as per the grade/quality certificate issued by SECL for FY 2021-22, no mines in Korba region have G7 grade coal.
IT has been observed that in the process of coal quality assessment, most of the error creeps in during the sampling process but there are hardly any chances of error in the analysis of coal as it is being done through automatic bomb calorimeters. So it could be deduced that the abnormally higher grade found in the 3rd party analysis may be due to some error in the process of sample collection.
Request has been made to CSIR-CIMFER to review the sample collection process at loading end so that representative samples may be collected in a proper manner and such discrepancies may be avoided in the future..
5. Soliciting extension of time gap of two weeks between the offer dates to commencement Tranche V NRS Linkage Auction for Cement Sub-sector:
As per the CIL notification, offer of cement auction will be uploaded by 6th September, 2021 and the auction will commence from 10th September, 2021. Ho0wever, the consumers from Cement sector have stated that such a short time between uploading of offer and commencement of auction is insufficient as it usually takes around 2 weeks to do a thorough review of the mines including physical verification for a long term commitment. Also, MSTC registration compliance with DSC and POA formalities take time.
Request has been made to CIL for providing at least two weeks of time between declaration of schedule and commencement of auction for the cement sub-sector.
6. Submission for increasing offer of coal from ECL, SECL, WCL and NCL in Tranche V NRS Linkage Auction for Cement Sub-sector:
Assessment of the annual coal requirement of various cement manufacturers highlighted for the cement manufacturers from North Eastern India, the cumulative annual coal requirement stands at around 20 lakh MT. Also, coal requirement by Cement plants from rest of India is much higher than what was offered in the Tranche V NRS linkage auction.
Request has been made to CIL and Subsidiaries like ECL, SECL, WCL and NCL separately for offering more quantity in the upcoming linkage auctions and list of preferred mines from respective Subsidiaries were also mentioned for consideration
7. Submission for offering maximum quantity possible from CIL Subsidiaries for CPP and Others Subsector:
As per the CIL Notification, NRS Linkage auction FSAs of Tranche-I of various sub-sectors will not be renewed after its initial term of five years. This may lead to discontinuation of supply for those consumers procuring coal under Tranche-I. However, the demand of coal is huge among Non-power consumers due to increased business activities.
Request has been made to the CIL and the concerned Subsidiaries including MCL, SECL, ECL and WCL to offer maximum quantity of coal possible under Tranche V NRS Linkage Auction for CPP and Others Sub-sectors, whose Linkage auction FSAs under the Tranche-I would expire in 2021 as well as those expiring till cutoff date (31.03.2022). .
8. Submission for rescheduling the dates of Tranche VII NRS Linkage Auction by Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) for Cement and CPP Sub-sectors:
It had been found that the dates for upcoming Tranche VII NRS Linkage Auction by SCCL for Cement Sub-sector on 20.09.2021 and 21.09.2021 and for CPP Sub-sector on 22.09.2021 and 23.09.2021 were coinciding with the CIL Linkage auction dates for Cement Sub-sector.
Request has been made to SCCL to reschedule the date of Tranche VII NRS Linkage auction for Cement and CPP Sub-sectors after the CIL auction for Cement Sub-sector is concluded so that the NRS consumers may participate in both the auctions.
9. Submission by NRS consumers for immediate requirement of Exclusive eAuctions across the Subsidiaries:
The Non-regulated Sector has registered a steady recovery in the ongoing financial year (FY 202021) overcoming last year’s downturn. However, number of Exclusive e-Auctions held by various CIL Subsidiaries has reduced drastically and the quantities offered in those auctions are not sufficient to meet the present requirement of the NRS consumers. The offered quantity is also of comparatively lower grade and supplied via Road Mode, making it inconvenient for the big Industries and plants situated at a far-off location to procure coal seamlessly.
Due to non-commencement of Tranche V NRS Linkage Auction on time and high premium in Spot e-Auctions, the NRS consumers primarily rely on Exclusive e-Auctions for procurement.
Request has been made to MoC and CIL to hold Exclusive e-Auctions on a tri-monthly basis, offer coal as per the MSQ by Rail mode and normalise rake movement for regular supply to NRS consumers at the earliest.
10. Request for approval of interplant transfer of coal for the NRS consumers:
Halted and sluggish movement in supply of coal from various CIL Subsidiaries has led to an unprecedented coal crisis in the Non-regulated Sector.
Request has been made to MoC and CIL to allow interplant transfer of coal for the same group of companies (within different units of the same organisation) for higher capacity plants in the Nonpower sector in line with the power sector. Any particular plant of an organisation has a reasonable amount of coal stock, this organisation may request the quantity to be supplied to another plant within the same group of company with almost no coal stock in order to save those plants from imminent shutdown.
11. Submission by NRS Consumers for immediate release of their BGs against terminated FSAs:
Many NRS consumers have stated that their BGs have not been refunded even several months after termination of their FSAs.
Request has been made to the concerned Subsidiary coal companies to immediately release the BGs to the NRS consumers whose FSAs have been terminated.
Issue Related to Railways:
12. Request for considering Actual Tare Weight instead of current practise of Stencilled Tare Weight during Weighment of Rakes:
Tare weighment of empty wagons is not permitted by the Railways at present and designed tare weight is considered for calculation of net weight of coal loaded in the wagons. On the other hand, calculation of net weight of coal is done in the RR by considering the designed tare weight. The actual tare weight of rakes is considerably higher than the tare weight printed on the wagons due to various reasons including of repairing, weathering, deposition of coal dust and extraneous material etc. The tare difference leads to significant overcharging of freight and the consumers have to pay coal value for the quantity of coal not delivered to them.
Request has been made to the Railway Board so that empty may be measured in the in-motion weighbridges and this actual tare weight of the empty wagons measured in the real time basis may be considered for calculating the quantity of coal loaded in wagons. Also, Bi-directional weighment facility may be provided in the present inmotion weighbridges as per RDSO guidelines by replacing the older ones.
