Coal news and updates

Power consumers ‘happy’ with 3rd-party sampling

Coal Secretary Anil Swarup feels that the third-party sampling system introduced for power sector consumers is working well and the consumers are “very happy” with it.

“I can give evidence to prove that power sector consumers are now very happy with it. I have received letters from them that they are happy,” Swarup said when asked about his views on the subject.

“If you understand the difference between what we are doing now and what we did before, you will understand why it is working,” he said.

This is working because the testing is not being done by Coal India… the samples are not taken by them, he said.

“Coal India is a party in this, so is the consumer. Samples are taken in the presence of both. One is given to Coal India, another is given to the consumer and the third goes for testing by a third party which is neither Coal India nor the party and fourth sample is kept by CIMFR,” he said.

On pointing out that there is an allegation that most of the sample results are being referred to disputes by CIL, the coal secretary said, “All these were before January 1 and all the disputes that have been referred were before January 1. As of now, we don’t have a single case where a third party sampling has been referred to disputes.”

“But it is too early to say. We started on January 1 and are still in February. I am not saying this is a perfect system, we are open to improvement and correction. If we do get suggestions, we will certainly improve, but the commitment of Coal India is very clear that we will only charge for the quality of coal that we supply,” Swarup concluded.