Reduction in coal import may save Rs 40,000 crores
The Dollar Business Bureau
The government of India is focusing on saving Rs.40,000 crore in foreign exchange, considering the low coal imports during the current fiscal.
The high performance of Coal India has reduced the import of dry fuel by around Rs.28,000 crore during the last fiscal year.
Piyush Goyal, the Coal and Power minister said that last year they have managed to save Rs.28,000 crore in foreign reserves and for the current year they are planning to achieve a target of Rs.40,000 crore.
He said they are planning to bring down the imports of thermal coal and increase the production capacity at the domestic level. The government of India is also targeting sufficient production of coal, to avoid any shortages for the coal based power plants. The import of coal has decreased from 21.42 million tonnes in March 2014-15 to 15.54 million tonnes in March 2015-16. Coal India has attained a production capacity of 536 million tonnes in 2015-16. However, they were expecting a production capacity of 550 million tonnes for the same period.
Coal India’s output for the current fiscal is set at 598 million tonnes.
Anil Swarup, Coal Secretary said that Coal India has decided to establish 15 washeries by 1st October 2017. The setting up of these washeries will help them in washing the coal that has an ash content of more than 34 percent.
Earlier, the coal secretary had mentioned that coal production by CIL had reduced the import of coal by 34.26 million tonnes, thus saving Rs 28,070 crores in foreign exchange reserves during the year 2015-16.
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