Coal output rises; imports of non-coking coal fall to 117.507 MT in Apr-Dec 2021: Government

New Delhi, March 8

The government on Tuesday said India has registered an increase in its coal production, leading to reduced imports despite witnessing a surge in demand from the power sector.

“Imports of all grades of non-coking coal has come down to 117.507 million tonne during April-December 2021 from 147.85 MT during the corresponding months of FY20 (financial year 2019-20), leading to a decline of about 20.52 per cent. India has achieved significant reduction in import despite surge in power demand,” Ministry of Coal said in a statement.

The financial year 2020-21 is not being taken for comparison due to industrial production getting severely affected because of the COVID–19 pandemic, it said.

The import of non-coking coal, primarily used in power sector, has decreased by 59.20 per cent to 21.41 MT during April-December 2021, from 52.49 MT in the same period of FY20.

The overall import of coal has also reduced to 160.84 MT from 186.65 MT earlier, indicating a fall of about 13.82 per cent, which has resulted in significant savings of forex reserves this year, especially when the coal prices are at a high level in the international market.

All efforts are on to further enhance domestic coal production as availability of additional coal will aid in import-substitution of the dry fuel.

According to the statement, the domestic coal-based power generation up to December 2021 was 727.39 BU (billion units) with an increase of 12.10 per cent over 648.843 BU during the same period of FY20.

Imported coal-based power generation, which was 69.56 BU during April to December 2019, has reduced by 53.10 per cent to 32.62 BU during the corresponding months of FY22.

India is the world’s third largest energy consumer and the country’s electricity demand grows by 4.7 per cent every year.

To reduce dependence on imports of coal, major reforms have been carried out by the Ministry of Coal.

The ministry amended the Mineral Concession (Amendment) Rules, 1960 under MMDR (Amendment) Act, 2021 to allow lessee of captive mines to sell coal or lignite up to 50 per cent of the total excess production after meeting the requirements of the end-use plant.

“With this amendment, the ministry has paved the way for releasing of additional coal in the market by greater utilisation of mining capacities of captive coal blocks which has led to increase in production of coal by 36.75 per cent from 45.47 MT up to Dec 2019 to 62.18 MT during corresponding period of FY22,” the statement said.