The Gujrat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) has decided not to purchase A&B grade coal from South Eastern Coal Field Limited (SECL) due to steep hike in its prices. The hike follows Coal India limited (CIL) increasing prices of its premium A&B grades linking it to international prices.
SECL is a subsidiary company of CIL. The CIL has said that it has revised the prices of A&B grades coal by 154 and 162 per cent respectively while prices of all other grades were being revised by 30 per cent, effective from February 27. Official sources said GUVNL has already communicated to SECL in this regard as the steep hike in prices of premium A&B grades of coal will impose a yearly financial burden of Rs 260 crores on it. However, GUVNL has been continuing purchase of C to F grades of coal from SECL and Western Coal Field (WCL) for its coal based thermal power stations located at Wanakbori near Vadodara in Central Gujarat, Ukai near Surat in South Gujarat, Gandhinagar in North Gujarat and Sikka near Jamnagar. While it uses lignite as fuel for the lignite based power station at Panndhro in Kutch district, they said.
At the time of revision of prices of various grades of coal, CIL had said "the prices of premium grades of coal, A&B, has been linked to the international price and would now be offered at 15 per cent discount on the global spot prices."