Coal supply by the state-owned Coal India to the power sector registered a drop of 8.9 per cent to 291.4 million tonnes in April-November the ongoing fiscal. It had supplied 320 million tonnes (MT) of coal in year-ago period, government data showed.
The fuel supply by Coal India (CIL) during the month of November also registered a decline of 9.9 per cent to 38.8 MT, against 43.1 MT in the corresponding month of previous fiscal.
On the other hand, the supply of coal from the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) also witnessed a fall of 1.7 per cent to 34.4 MT in the April-November period of the ongoing fiscal, against 35 MT in the same period in 2018.
SCCL’s fuel supply also slipped by 6.1 per cent during the month of November to 4.6 MT, against 4.9 MT in the corresponding month of previous fiscal.
During the month of April-November, CIL saw its coal production decline by 7.7 per cent to 330.4 MT, over 358.3 MT in the year-ago period. However, it had earlier expected to produce 750 million tonnes of coal in the next financial year.
Stating rain as the ‘enemy of the coal sector’, a government official had recently blamed extended monsoon for the loss of coal output for a few months from July onwards in the current fiscal.
As per the Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi, CIL is expected to produce 1 billion tonnes of coal by FY2024.
The public sector undertaking is currently given the target of producing 660 million tonnes of coal amounting to 82 per cent of the country’s coal output.
Meanwhile, government has blamed monsoon rains for the poor output of coal, starting from July onwards in the current fiscal year, which affected yearly supply of the coal to the power sector.
(With input from agencies)