CIL's coal supply to power sector drops marginally to 64.7 million tonnes

New Delhi: Supply of coal by state-owned CIL to power plants dipped by nearly two per cent to 64.7 million tonnes (MT) in April-May period of the ongoing fiscal even as demand by the power sector showed an upturn.

According to recent government data, Coal India (CIL) dispatched 65.8 MT fuel to the power sector in the same period of last fiscal. CIL's supply to the power sector last month declined by 3.52 per cent to 32.8 MT over 34 MT in May, 2016, the data said.

The company is a major supplier of coal to the power sector. In contrast, the overall dispatch in April and May increased to 91.7 MT over 88.2 MT in the corresponding period of 2016-17.

The overall dispatch by the PSU in May registered an increase of 2 per cent to 46.4 MT over 45.5 MT in May, 2016. Government had earlier said demand of coal by the power sector has picked up since December, 2016 as the economy was doing well.

A series of measures have been taken by CIL to make more coal available to power sector such as offering coal under special forward e-auction scheme exclusively for the sector.

Besides, measures like reducing reserve price and earnest money deposit to make e-auctions attractive, no performance incentives on higher grades of coal, have also been taken up.

Coal India, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal output is eyeing one billion tonne of production target by 2020.