Private imports to tide gap of 41 mn tonnes of coal: Rao

New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) The Government today told the Rajya Sabha the gap of 41.71 million tonnes of coal, as assessed by the Planning Commission, was expected to be met to a large extent through coal import by power, steel and cement sector and other industries.

Minister of State for Coal Dr Dasari Narayana Rao, in a written reply, said that since coal was under the Open General Licence (OGL), consumers were free to import coal based on their requirements.

''Consumers requiring high grade of coal have to invariably import because the domestic coal is of inferior grade and high grade availability is limited,'' he added.

Replying to a question on captive mining, the Minister said that energy, cement and steel sectors would be allowed to bid for the new blocks as captive mining units.

He admitted that the inventory of geological resources of Indian coal had increased from 201.95 billion tonnes on January one, 1996 to 253.30 billion tonnes as on January 1, 2006 with addition of 51.35 billion tonnes of new coal resources.

However, the estimated raw coal demand as projected by the Planning Commission during 2006-07 was 474.18 million tonnes against the domestic supply of 432.39 million tonnes, he said.

To another question, the Minister said the Government had reviewed the policy on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and decided to hike the FDI caps to 100 per cent. Now, FDI was permitted under the automatic route for coal and lignite mining for captive consumption by power projects, iron and steel, cement production and other eligible activities permitted under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973.

Mr Rao further said that fresh capital investment was required to increase coal production. During the Tenth Plan period, the capital envisaged was Rs 12,525.12 crore for Public Sector Undertakings. Of this, the proposed capital investment for 2006-07 was Rs 3,640.79 crore.

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