Govt gives gencos time till Friday to begin process for coal imports

New Delhi: Domestic power producers have time till Friday to place orders for import of coal, failing which they will be allocated only 70 per cent of their requirement by the government, according to an official notification.

On May 18, the Ministry of Power had warned that if orders for coal imports are not placed by May 31, 2022 and the imported fuel does not start arriving at power plants by June 15, the defaulter gencos will have to increase their imports to the extent of 15 per cent.

Further, if blending with domestic coal is not started by June 15, then the domestic allocation of the concerned defaulter's thermal power plants will be further reduced by 5 per cent, the ministry had said in a letter to state governments and power generation companies (gencos), including independent power producers (IPPs).

According to the latest notification dated June 1, "Those GENCOS/IPPs who either do not place their indents with CIL by 3.6.2022 or have not initiated their tender processes for purchase of imported coal for blending purposes, they will be allocated only 70 percent of the quantity of domestic coal...(which) will be further reduced to 60 per cent from 15.6.2022."

The amount of coal which will be saved as part of this action against defaulters will be allocated to those gencos/IPPs which have already commenced blending.