The government on Tuesday said
the country is likely to import 194 million tonnes (MT) of coal in 2017, as
against 135 MT at present, to meet the demand of the power sector.
“Current year, we have to import
135 MT of coal to meet our power sector requirement. The demand will increase
further as we are setting up new power plants. It is expected that we will have
to import 194 MT of coal in 2017,” Minister of State for Coal Mr Pratik
Prakashbapu Patil said in a seminar.
The minister also said during the
seminar organized by World Confederation Productivity Science (India) and World
Academy of Productivity Science that with the passage of time, the country's
dependence on imported coal would not come down and would go up instead.
“There will be more dependency on
imported coal. The dependency has increased from 6 per cent to 13 per cent in
the last five to six years,” he said.
As per the Planning Commission,
the demand-supply gap for coal in the ongoing year is likely to touch 142 MT,
with domestic availability of only 554 MT against the requirement of 696 MT.
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