In the Union Budget 2013-14, India's Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram has declared that customs duty and countervailing duty of 2% each will
apply on Imported Steam coal and Bituminous coal.
Earlier, Customs duty and CVD on imported steam coal was 0%
& 1% respectively. And, Imported Bituminous coal attracted customs of 5%
and CVD of 6%. This move has come to bring in more clarity for the customs
department, since both the materials are used in power generation.
Mr. Chidambaram also said that India needs to reduce
dependency on imported coal as the country has abundant coal reserves managed
by Coal India Limited (CIL).
The finance minister in his budget speech also highlighted that
coal imports to India is estimated to reach 185 million tons by 2016-17 from
about a 100 million in 2012-13.
Also, in conjunction with the idea of denationalization of
Coal floated earlier by the planning commission, the government has indicated
encouraging Public Private Partnership coal projects along with Coal India.
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