According to Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) secretary Akash Agarwal and Indian Coal Forum (ICF) President Abhimanyu Gupta, the Government has decided to switch over to GCV system which as per rule requires sampling and analysis to finalise the grade or GCV band of a mine.
Without undertaking analysis of coal, subsidiaries of Coal India like Western Coal Fields here have arbitrarily declared various GCVs of the seams available in its area and in all cases, we find the GCV declared is very much different to the Useful Heat Value (UHV) figures, the system that was followed earlier, the two associations said.
The new system which has led to wrong classification of coal has resulted in price escalating and in some cases public utilities which bought coal on December 31 at Rs 1100 per tonne (under the earlier system) are now required to buy it at Rs 2500 per tonne.
The coal that was sold on December 31 as 4200 GCV was sold on January 1 as 5300 GCV Coal, they pointed out.
Source: Economic Times
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