New Delhi: Increase in domestic output will result in lower coal imports in the ongoing fiscal, a top government official said today.
"Coal imports will continue to come down with increased availability of coal (domestic)," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi.
As per the data of first two months of this fiscal, the import of coal is likely to reduce, he said.
"Quantities I cannot predict how much will come down. I have no doubts that coal imports will come down. Last fiscal, we saved Rs 24,000 crore and we are aiming Rs 40,000 crore of saving this year (2016-17)," Swarup said.
Noting that the demand of coal is not going at the envisaged hope in the country, Swarup expressed hope that Uday scheme will help boost the demand for the dry fuel in the days to come.
"We will continue to produce. We are not revising the (coal production) target," he stressed.
He further stated that response to the ongoing auction of coal linkages for the non-regulated sector has been encouraging.
When asked about Coal India's plans for acquiring coal mines overseas, the secretary said, "The ground work has been done in South Africa. Now final discussions are on."
Registering a drop of 19.2%, coal imports stood at 16.38 million tonnes (MT) last month on the back of sufficient availability of domestic fuel.
Last year, it was around 20.29 million tonnes.
The import of coal came down by 15% to 15.9 MT in April this year.
In 2015-16, Coal India (CIL) which accounts for over 80% of domestic output, achieved a record production of 536 MT, which was 42 MT more than the previous fiscal.
Its production grew 8.5% year-on-year. CIL was, however, eyeing 550 MT output.
CIL's output is fixed at 598 MT for this fiscal.
