Overall Coal import down to 173.20 MT during April to January 2022

28 Mar 2022 , 05:47 PM

With the considerable increase in domestic coal production,  India has  achieved significant reduction in import of coal despite surge in power demand. Imports of all grades of Non Coking Coal has come down  to 125.611 Million Ton (MT) during the period April to January 2022 from 163.845 MT during the corresponding months of the FY 20, a decline of about 23.33%.

The domestic coal based power generation upto January 2022 is 815.72 BU (Billion Units) with an increase of 12.55% over  724.746 BU during the corresponding period of FY 20. Imported coal based power generation which was 78.07 BU during April to January 2020 has reduced by 55% to 35.13 BU during corresponding months of current FY 22.

The import of Non Coking coal primarily used in power sector has decreased by 60.87% from 58.09 MT to 22.73 MT upto Jan 22 in comparison to the same period of FY 20. The overall import of coal has also reduced to 173.20 MT in the period from April to January 2022 as compared to 207.235 MT during the corresponding period of FY 20,  decrease of about 16.42% 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.

India is the world’s third largest energy consuming country and electricity demand grows by 4.7% each year. To reduce the dependence on imports of coal, major reforms initiatives has been undertaken  by the Ministry of Coal with the vision of “AtmaNirbhar Bharat”.

The Ministry has 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% of the total excess production after meeting the requirements of the end-use plant.

With this amendment, MoC has paved the way for releasing of additional coal in the market by greater utilization of mining capacities of captive coal blocks which has led to increase in production of coal by 37.85% from 51.73 MT upto Jan 2020* to 71.31 MT during the corresponding period of FY 22. This has led to an overall increase in domestic production of coal by 8.38% to 601.97MT upto January 22 as compared to 555.41 MT in the corresponding months of FY 20.In the FY 23, it is expected that domestic thermal coal supply will be adequate to meet power sector demand.

The financial year 2020-21 is not being taken for comparison purpose as it was impacted by Covid — 19 pandemic.