The outstanding dues of the power sector for the coal supplied by the mining PSUs rose by 10 per cent on a M-o-M basis to ₹19,180 crore at the end of December 2022, of which the majority is owed to Coal India (CIL).

According to the latest data by the Coal Ministry, power generating companies owed ₹15,387 crore to the mining behemoth, while ₹3,793 crore were the outstanding dues of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL).

With respect to the country’s largest coal miner, the outstanding dues on a month-on-month basis were higher by 5 per cent from ₹14,631.15 crore in November 2022. Similarly, the dues of SCCL were higher by 37 per cent from ₹2,764 crore during the same review period.

CIL dues rising

CIL’s outstanding dues during December have been the second highest during the 2022 calendar year, after July. The dues have been inching up since November.

October was the third consecutive month of decline in the outstanding dues. CIL’s average cost of production is around ₹1,310.88 per tonne.

At the end of January 2022, the dues stood at ₹15,097.01 crore, which fell consecutively during February to ₹15,037.32 crore and then to ₹12,272.41 crore in March 2022. With peak electricity demand season beginning in April 2022, which this year was also marked by an unusually high uptick in temperatures, the power sector dues started inching up at ₹12,819.09 crore during the month.

The dues kept growing during May (₹13,825.20 crore), June (₹15,252.20 crore) and hit the highest so far in 2022 during July at ₹15,824.14 crore. The outstanding to CIL started to decline from August (₹15,143.31 crore) and continued their northward journey during the next two consecutive months.

Production and target

India’s coal production grew 16.39 per cent Y-o-Y to 607.97 million tonnes during April-December this fiscal year compared to 522.34 mt during the same period in FY22.

CIL reported coal production of 479.05 mt up to December of FY23 against 413.63 mt in the year-ago period, representing an increase of 15.82 per cent. It is expected that CIL will surpass the target of 700 mt fixed for FY23.

Overall, the Coal Ministry targets to produce more than 1 billion tonnes of coal in FY24. In order to achieve this aim, in-depth review has been carried out by the Coal Secretary A L Meena with all coal companies.

It has been decided to fix 780 mt target to CIL, 75 mt for SCCL and 162 mt for captive and commercial mines. A total of 290 mines are operational in CIL, out of which 97 mines produce more than one mt per year.

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