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Indian coal-based utilities face shortfall of 84.71 million mt 2014-15

Indian coal-based power utilities face a shortage of 84.71 million mt in the fiscal year to March 31, 2015, Piyush Goyal, minister of state for power, coal & new and renewable energy said in the upper house of parliament Monday.

Demand for coal-based power in the year will require 551.60 million mt of the mineral, whereas coal supplies are projected to be 466.89 million mt, the minister said in a written reply to a question in parliament.

In order to ensure adequate availability of coal, state-run Coal India Limited has been asked to enhance production of domestic coal and power utilities have been advised to increase coal imports, the minister said.

Power utilities imported 79.7 million mt of coal in fiscal year 2013-14, according to the Central Electricity Authority.

The minister said the government had no plans to set up an independent pricing authority for coal. The pricing of coal has been fully deregulated and coal companies themselves fix the coal price based on input costs, the inflation index, market trends, he said.

Source: Platts