Coal India's fuel supply skids 9% in Apr-Nov

New Delhi: The supply of coal by state-owned Coal India to the power sector registered a decline of 8.9 per cent to 291.4 million tonnes in April-November this year.

The world's largest coal miner had supplied 320 million tonnes (MT) of coal in April-November period of the previous fiscal, according to latest government data.

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, the data showed.

Coal dispatch by state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) also dropped marginally by 1.7 per cent to 34.4 MT in the April-November period of the ongoing fiscal, against 35 MT in the year-ago period. The fuel supply by SCCL during the month of November also dropped by 6.1 per cent to 4.6 MT, against 4.9 MT in the corresponding month of previous fiscal.

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. CIL saw its production decline by 7.7 per cent to 330.4 MT in April-November period, over 358.3 MT in the year-ago period.

The state-owned firm had earlier said that it will produce 750 million tonnes of coal in the next financial year. The firm will further produce 1 billion tonnes of coal by FY2024, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi had said.

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. Joshi had said that with the demand for power rising steeply, there is enough opportunity for both government and private sectors to produce coal without adversely impacting each other.