APMDC Suliyari coal upcoming auction 1,00,000 MT for MP MSME on 1st Oct 2024 / 1st Nov 2024 & 2nd Dec 2024 @ SBP INR 2516/- per MT
Registered User
New UserCoal India Limited to streamline supplies to small units
23 Jun 2015
State-run Coal India on Monday said it is trying to clear procedural hurdles affecting coal supplies to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
"The small-scale sector is not in a position to pick up volumes that can be transported over railways," said a senior Coal India executive, requesting anonymity. "Procedural issues have been holding up coal supplies to the small sector. Coal India supplies the required volume of coal to state-owned units, which in turn distribute it on a nomination basis to small-scale companies."
Last year, Coal India had earmarked 8 million tonne (mt) of coal for the MSME sector but companies managed to lift only 2mt, the executive said.
On Monday, Coal India convened a meeting of state government representatives at its headquarters in Kolkata in a bid to facilitate steady supply of coal to the MSME sector in a fair and transparent manner.
"In a consumer friendly initiative, CIL had invited all the state government representatives to discuss, threadbare the details of coal supplies to MSMEs," a Coal India statement said. "The objective of the meeting was to put at ease the concerns of the small consumers regarding their coal requirements and to reassure them of CIL's commitment in easing coal supplies through their respective state government nominated agency. "
The director (marketing) at Coal India, its chief vigilance officer and officials from the Union coal ministry also attended the meeting.
Micro, small and medium enterprises that use coal as fuel include brick kilns, food processing industries, lime factories, smokeless fuel plants and coke oven units.
As per the Union government's new coal distribution policy, companies having coal requirement of less than 4,200 tonne per annum and who cannot conclude fuel supply agreements on their own, can procure coal through through state-nominated agencies.
Considering the large number of MSME consumers, Coal India's subsidiary companies enter into bilateral FSAs with state government-nominated agencies, who in turn distribute coal to MSME consumers.
"The success of this endeavour depends much on the effective control of logistics and distribution mechanism by respective state governments," said the Coal India executive.