“Import of Coal: Trends and Issues of Self-Reliance” Report by Parliamentary Committee

“Import of Coal: Trends and Issues of Self-Reliance” Report by Parliamentary Committee

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coals, Mines and Steel has recently published a report titled “Import of Coal – Trends and issues of self reliance”. In this report, committee studied the trend of coal import, issues related to import, measure taken by Central Government and given the recommendations to reduce import and achieve self reliance in coal sector.

The import of coal has gradually increased from 43 million tonnes in 2006-2007 to 215 million tonnes (MT) in 2020-21.The import of coal is necessary to meet the growing demand of which is 1027 MT in 2020-21.

• The supply of high quality cola is still limited.
• Indian Government is not putting efforts of pursuing overseas coal blocks.
• Freight and port handling charges are very high.
• Private sector reluctance to adopt latest technologies.

Multiple steps have been taken by Government of India for reduction of import of coal to save the precious foreign exchange. Government is planning to substitute nearly 158MT of imported coal for the year 2022-23.

Steps taken for reduction of import of coal

• Inter-Ministerial committee has been constituted to encourage coal sectors to reduce coal import. To measure the pattern of coal import, registration at Coal Importer Management System has been made compulsory.
• Adaptation of blast free mining technique to improve quality of coal supplied.
• To lower coal pricing : improvement in man and machine utilisation, advancement in technologies and minimising expenditure in non essential items.

Recommendation given by Committee

• Promotion of domestic coal production.
• Setting-up more coal washers by public and private sector companies so as to reduce.dependence on imported coking coal.
• Auctioning more mines on revenue-sharing basis.
• Mining at newly explored/developed sites after obtaining necessary environment and forest clearance.
• Transform manual method of mining to highly mechanised system of mining to increase coal productivity and ensure safety of miners.