Coal India Ltd.

State run Coal India may import 10 million tonnes of coal this fiscal to meet the obligation of supplying a minimum assured quantity of fuel to power companies under the presidential directive. The development comes in the wake of the government issuing a presidential directive to the company to ink fuel supply agreements (FSA) with 80 per cent supply clause before March-end for power plants that have been commissioned on or before December 31, 2011.

The present position the company can easily assure 60 per cent of the committed supply. Hence, the company for meeting the remaining percentage of obligation would weigh various options of importing coal that would include direct imports, if required. Apart from imports, the company may also think of diverting coal meant for e-auction to power firms.

In view of its past performance, the PSU has fixed the output target at 470 MT for the current fiscal, which is around 35 MT incremental from the previous fiscal’s output. Coal India is the largest coal producing company in the world. The company also produces non-coking coal and coking coal of various grades for diverse applications.