CIL may miss output target by 20 MT this fiscal: Coal Secy

NEW DELHI: State-owned Coal India is likely to miss the production target by 20 MT and may end up producing up to 578 million tonnes this fiscal due to a string of issues, including evacuation and demandsupply, a top official has said.

The world’s largest miner is aiming to ramp up its output to 1 billion tonnes by 2020.

“CIL may miss (production target) by 20 million tonnes (MT) and it (the output) should be between 570-578 MT,” Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar said.

The PSU has set a target of 598 MT production in 2016-17.

“Coal India is trying to meet their production target. It has promised me that it will try its best to meet the target and it is geared up,” the Secretary said.

Coal India, he said, may not be able to meet the target as the PSU is facing a lot of issues. In Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (a Coal India arm) there were serious problems like resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R).

“There are problems also. Now that I have visited MCL (Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd), WCL (Western Coalfields Ltd), CCL (Central Coalfields Ltd)...there is not much problem in the CCL. In MCL there are serious problems,” he said.

The company, he further said, was facing many other issues like delays in coal evacuation. In between, he said, there was less demand of coal by power sector and as a result there was less offtake of fossil fuel.

“But if there is a backlog then what happens is that your inventory starts increasing at your pitheads. If there is more inventory you have to quickly liquidate it else there may be changes of fire. Those are problems,” Kumar said.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal production. NEW DELHI: The Centre’s demonetisation drive is seemed to have a significant impact on the gold demand in the country as imports of the metal dropped sharply in December and January. Gold imports reduced to 54.1 tonnes in December and 53.2 tonnes in January from a high of 119.2 tonnes in November, the month during which the government scrapped the old Rs 500/1,000 notes. The decline in January is 43 per cent from the gold imported in the corresponding month in 2016.

According to an RBI assessment paper, after demonetisation, the domestic demand for gold (or gold items) spiked suddenly, with “buyers reportedly willing” to pay huge premiums to dispose of old currency notes with jewellers. “Reflecting this development as well as the seasonal jump, the volume of gold imports surged in November, even above the elevated October level. Gold imports, however, declined sharply in December 2016 and January 2017,” the paper said.

The RBI said that around 80 per cent of the gems and jewellery purchases in India are made in cash and consumer demand was reported to have been impacted due to the cash shortage. The country’s total gold imports declined to 546 tonnes in April-jan of this fiscal, lower than 892.9 tonnes in the year-ago period.

The world’s largest miner is aiming to ramp up its output to 1 billion tonnes by 2020