New Delhi: India is the world’s third-largest energy-consuming country and electricity demand grows by 4.7 percent each year. To reduce the dependence on imports of coal major reforms have been carried out by the Ministry of Coal with the vision of “Atma Nirbhar Bharat”.
The Ministry has also amended the Mineral Concession (Amendment) Rules, 1960 under MMDR (Amendment) Act, 2021 to allow lessees of captive mines to sell coal or lignite up to 50 percent 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 have led to an increase in production of coal by 36.06 percent from 39.15 MT up to Nov 19* to 53.27 MT during the corresponding period of FY 22. The reforms have led to an increase in domestic production of coal by 9.01 percent and the overall coal production rose at 447.54 MT up to November 21 as compared to 410.55 MT in the corresponding months of FY 20.
With an increase in domestic production of coal, we have achieved a significant reduction in the import of coal despite a surge in power demand. The coal-based power generation up to November 2021 is 671.906 BU (Billion Units) with an increase of 5.17 percent over a generation of 638.82 BU during the corresponding period of FY 20. Imported coal-based power generation which was 61.78 BU from April to Nov 2019 has reduced by 51.38 percent to 30.036 BU during the corresponding months of current FY 22. Imports of all grades of Non-Coking Coal have reduced to 107.36 MT during the period April to November 2021 from a level of 131.51 MT during the corresponding months of FY 20, leading to a decline of about 18.36 percent.
The import of Non-Coking coal primarily used in the power sector has decreased by 57.59 percent from 46.53 MT to 19.73 MT up to Nov 2021 in comparison to the same period of FY 20 which has opened the doors to become self-reliant in coal production. The overall import of coal has also reduced to 147.14 MT in the period from April to November 2021 compared to 165.57 MT during the corresponding period of FY 20, a decrease of about 11.13 percent 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. The government is continuing all efforts to further enhance the coal production in the country as the availability of additional coal will aid in the import substitution of coal.
The financial year 2020 -21 is not being taken for comparison purposes due to industrial production getting severely affected during the year because of Covid-19 related restrictions.