Comments
The outstanding dues of the power sector for the coal supplied by the mining PSUs rose by 7 per cent on an M-o-M basis to ₹20,491 crore at the end of January 2023, of which the majority is owed to Coal India (CIL).
According to the latest data by the Coal Ministry, power generating companies owed ₹16,857 crore to the mining behemoth, while ₹3,634 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 10 per cent from ₹15,387 crore in December 2022. However, the dues of SCCL were lower by 4 per cent from ₹3,793 crore during the period.
CIL’s dues rising
CIL’s outstanding dues during January have been the highest so far in the current financial year ending March 2023. 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 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 2022 onwards (₹15,143.31 crore) and continued their northward journey during the next two consecutive months.
Production and target
The country’s coal production grew 12.94 per cent Y-o-Y to 89.96 million tonnes in January 2023 from 79.65 mt in January 2022.
According to the provisional data for January by the Coal Ministry, CIL registered a growth of 11.44 per cent, whereas SCCL and captive mines/others registered a growth of 13.93 per cent and 22.89 per cent, respectively.
Coal despatch increased by 8.54 per cent Y-o-Y to 81.91 mt last month from 75.47 mt January 2022. During January 2023, CIL, SCCL and captives/others registered a growth of 6.07 per cent, 14 per cent and 21.9 per cent by despatching 64.45 mt, 6.84 mt and 10.61 mt, respectively. The power utilities despatch rose 8.01 per cent to 67.72 mt during January 2023 compared to 62.70 mt in January 2022.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.