Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, on Wednesday said that the prices of indigenously mined coal should be aligned to global market to prevent distortion in the energy market in India.
“We should try to align the domestic coal price to international. Even if you do not do that, the coal prices would certainly go up...And that is an important issue that we have to face,’’ Ahluwalia said, while addressing KPMG Energy Conclave in New Delhi.
The Deputy Chairman said that the recent decision of passing on the higher cost of imported coal to consumers is an absolutely unavoidable move.
“Because of the cheaper domestic supply, the demand is more and it is distorting the market. We solve that problem by ultimately pooling of coal,’’ he said.
According to Ahluwalia, Indian coal is priced much below that of imported coal. And gradually, the country is becoming more dependent on imported coal. This results in deviation of electricity, as some sectors face much higher tariff, he said.