In a bid to increase fuel availability for power plants in the country, the government has revised upwards the coal import target by 40 per cent to 35 million tonnes (MT) for the next fiscal, even as the coal ministry claims that India has sufficient coal to meet its needs.
“We have set a coal import target of 35 MT for power utilities in 2009-10, against the earlier planned 25 MT,” said power secretary VS Sampath.
Earlier this year, the government had raised the target to 28.7 MT. The reworking of the target comes against the backdrop of a huge additional power generation capacity planned to be set up by the companies.
Among the major power-producing companies, state-owned NTPC Ltd would import 12.5 MT coal next fiscal, against the previous target of 10 MT, according to RS Sharma, chairman and managing director of the company.
Even as the government has drawn up plans to increase coal imports, Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia had earlier claimed that the country had surplus coal. “We have a surplus coal stock of about 31 MT and the shortage of coal is a myth,” he said.
Lack of availability of the dry fuel, in addition to the delays in power capacity addition, is identified as the major reason for the expanding gap in the demand and supply of electricity in India.
Coal-based power generation constituted around 65 per cent of the 539 billion units of power generated in the country between April and December 2008.
While around 20 MT of coal was planned to be imported in the current fiscal, around 18 MT has been imported till now.