Amid objections raised by a few states on price pooling mechanism for coal, the Power Ministry is likely to send a revised proposal on this to the Coal Ministry by the month-end.
"The Power Ministry will send a revised proposal on price pooling of imported coal to the Coal Ministry before the end of November," a government official said.
The development comes against the backdrop of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) asking Coal India and Central Electricity Authority to work on pooling mechanism jointly.
Some of the states, including West Bengal, have raised objections to the mechanism.
According to CIL, price pooling was a mechanism to implement fuel supply agreements (FSA) with power firms and "if price pooling is approved then 15% supply of imported coal will be not in the cost plus method, but in pooling mechanism".
Planning Commission had said that to offset the impact of high import costs, Coal India (CIL) should adopt a pooling formula on prices by combining rates of imported and domestic coal.
Also, there is a proposal to bring some changes in coal price pooling mechanism by deciding the pricing of imported coal on the calorific value of coal among others, sources said.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had recently said the price-pooling mechanism should be adopted for fuel supply to power firms but solution to some of the issues involved could take some time.
The CIL board has earlier approved the modified FSA without price-pooling with 65% domestic coal and 15% imported coal at cost plus basis.
So far, only 30 power companies, including Lanco and Adani have signed FSAs with CIL.
