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No need for Coal India to cut production: Coal secy

There is no need for Coal India to resort to production cuts despite a rise in pithead vendible stocks, Secretary (Coal) Anil Swarup said in Kolkata on February 24.

Swarup’s comments came almost a month after Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had indicated in the same city that Coal India Ltd (CIL) might have to resort to production cuts to manage inventories in view of low demand for coal from power sector consumers.

“There is not really a need for Coal India to cut production because we are still importing a lot of coal, though our imports are coming down quite dramatically,” Swarup said.

He pointed out that India had imported about 212 million tons (mt) of coal in 2014-15 and in the first 10 months of 2015-16, imports are down by 16%, which have already yielded savings of Rs 22,000 crore to the state exchequer.

“But despite this saving and reduction in imports, we are still importing coal. So it is not that there is no demand for the fuel. The point is, the situation has improved so dramatically that it gives you an impression there is acute surplus. I would rather be happy sitting on more coal than less of it,” Swarup said.

“My initial step is to see that imports stop. We are especially working towards ensuring that the quantity of coal which is available in India should not be imported,” he added.