Government to make the Country Self Sufficent in Coal Production
Government to make the Country Self Sufficent in Coal Production
Most of the requirement of coal in the country is met through indigenous production and supply. The focus of the Government is on increasing the domestic production of coal and to eliminate non-essential import of coal in the country. The all-India domestic coal production in the year 2023-2024 was 997.828 Million Tonne (MT) (Provisional) in comparison to 893.191 MT in the year 2022-2023 with the growth of about 11.71 %. Further, in the current financial year (upto June’24), the country has produced 247.396 MT (Provisional) of coal as compared to 223.376 MT (provisional) during the same period of last year with a growth of about 10.75%. The steps taken by the Government to make the country self-sufficient in the production of coal are as under:
In addition to above, coal companies have also taken following steps to increase the domestic coal production:
Measures taken by the Government to substitute coal imports:
The following legislation/amendments have been made in making the country self-sufficient in coal production and reducing imports: –
1. Mineral Concession Rules (MCR), 1960 amended with a view to allowing sale of coal or lignite, on payment of additional amount, by the lessee of a captive mine up to 50 percent of the total coal or lignite produced in a financial year, after meeting the requirement of the end use plant linked with the mine. The allowance for sale prescribed quantity of coal or lignite shall motivate the captive lessees to enhance the production from the captive mines.
2. Enactment of Mineral Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020 on 13.03.2020 to enable the following:
Accordingly, amendments have also been made to the CMSP Rules, 2014, Coal Block Allocation Rules, 2017 and MCR, 1960 in view of above amendments brought about in the Acts through the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020.
This information was given by Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri G. Kishan Reddy in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
- Regular reviews by Ministry of Coal to expedite the development of coal blocks.
- Enactment of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2021 [MMDR Act] for enabling captive mines owners (other than atomic minerals) to sell up to 50% of their annual mineral (including coal) production in the open market after meeting the requirement of the end use plant linked with the mine in such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government on payment of such additional amount.
- Single Window Clearance portal for the coal sector to speed up the operationalization of coal mines.
- Project Monitoring Unit for hand-holding of coal block allottees for obtaining various approvals / clearances for early operationalization of coal mines.
- Auction of commercial mining on revenue sharing basis launched in 2020. Under commercial mining scheme, rebate of 50 % on final offer has been allowed for the quantity of coal produced earlier than scheduled date of production. Also, incentives on coal gasification or liquefaction (rebate of 50 % on final offer) have been granted.
- Terms and conditions of commercial coal mining are very liberal with no restriction on utilization of coal, allowing new companies to participate in the bidding process, reduced upfront amount, adjustment of upfront amount against monthly payment, liberal efficiency parameters to encourage flexibility to operationalize the coal mines, transparent bidding process, 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through automatic route and revenue sharing model based on the National Coal Index