West Bengal Power Minister Manish Gupta on Saturday reiterated the State’s demand for appointment of a coal regulator. He said the sector had become “monopolistic” because of the State-run Coal India Ltd’s stranglehold over it.
“If there can be a regulatory authority for various sectors such as insurance or telecom, why can we not have one for the coal sector? CIL has been arbitrarily hiking prices now and then,” Gupta said during a workshop organised by the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL).
Opposing the concept of price pooling, Gupta said that it would escalate the fuel costs of existing power utilities in the State, which has domestic coal supplies.
West Bengal has been one of the coal-bearing States that has so far opposed the price pooling mechanism. Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh too have opposed it.
Under the price pooling mechanism, existing users of domestic coal will subsidise a part of the imported coal requirement of new power facilities.
abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in