Coal imports will continue to decline this fiscal due to ?unprecedented increase? in output of the fossil fuel by state-owned Coal India Ltd.
Coal Secretary, Anil Swarup said, . ?The drop in imports can be attributed to increase in coal production by CIL?
?Consequent to a record production by Coal India, import of coal comes down for fifth successive month. Down by 8.9 per cent during April-November,? Swarup said.
?Coal imports come down from 136.6 mn t in April-November 2014 to 119.9 mn t in 2015. In value terms, down from Rs 68,822 crore to Rs 54,607 crore,? he said.
CIL?s production increased by 8.8 per cent during the April-November period of the current fiscal 2015-16 on a YoY basis.
Production was up by almost 26 mn t during April-November 2015 compared to the same period previous fiscal. CIL produced 321.38 mn t of coal during April-November, 2015-16 as against 295.40 mn t in the year ago period. The state-owned firm, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, is eyeing to 1 bn t production by 2020.