New Delhi: Government has no proposal at present to provide fresh coal linkages to private companies for new and upcoming power projects, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
"At persent, there is no proposal to provide fresh coal linkages to private companies for new and upcoming projects," Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said during Question Hour.
The government has so far issued 177 Letters of Assurance to various power plants including central and state sectors as well as Independent Power Producers covering 108,000 MW. Out of this, the competent authority had in 2013 approved signing Fuel Supply Agreements (FSAs) with respect of 78,000 MW plants which have been commissioned or are likely to be commissioned by March 31, 2015.
It was further decided that coal may also be supplied to power plants of 4,660 MW subject to availability of coal after feeding identified plants of 78,000 MW capacity.
"The power projects of the remaining capacity of 30,000 MW are yet to be authorised for signing of FSAs. Keeping in view the negative coal balance reported by subsidiary coal companies of Coal India, new linkages/Letter of Assurance (LoA) have not been granted to any of the sectors since 2010," Goyal said.
The Minister said coal linkages/LoAs issued to the power plants are converted into long-term fuel supply agreements after they achieve prescribed milestones.
"The consumers under the FSA are supplied coal at the price notified by CIL from time to time. This applies to the regulated sectors," he said.
For non-regulated sectors like steel, cement and sponge iron, CIL charges a price which is about 35 per cent higher than the notified price.
"This is because the prices of end products of coal-consuming industries in the non-regulated sector are market-driven," Goyal said.
He said government was committed to providing 24X7 power supply to every household by 2019.