NEW DELHI: The government will ensure that coal demand of states, PSUs and small players is fully met before opening the sector for commercial mining by private companies, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said today.
In the first stage, the coal blocks under commercial mining will be given to states and PSUs “then gradually (the government would) go down to the next level.”
“Today I want to make sure that all requirements of the states are fully met first and the small people so that it may not happen that the private miners come and the price of coal gets disturbed,” the Power Minister said.
He said the next round of mines auction would take some more time as the government is still watching the international market pricing.
Last month, the government had said the coal ministry is likely to come out with an approach paper for formulating a detailed policy on commercial coal mining by March.
“Earlier, we were thinking to open up the coal sector for commercial mining for the private sector in the current fiscal. But it is likely that there would be some delays,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup had said.
He had said the government did not get “too many” responses in the last auction and Coal India has also increased its production to meet the demand.
“So, we will take a look at the market situation before we put up the blocks for commercial mining for private companies,” Swarup had said.
The government plans to put up coal blocks for auction to private players for opening up the coal sector for commercial mining.
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NEW DELHI: The government will unveil a raft of new policies to boost hydropower and electricity from biomass, biofuels and cogeneration as well as significant increase in the use of electric cars, Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The government will also correct transmission bottlenecks, improve last-mile grid connectivity and take steps to increase demand for electricity as many power plants are running at a low capacity, the minister said at conference organised at the launch of energy portal ETEnergyworld. com on Thursday.
He said the country can also expect initiatives to correct transmission bottlenecks and replacement of diesel generators with reliable supply, which would generate demand for electricity from underutilised power stations and reduce the use of standby generation that is often very polluting.
The ministry is banking on large scale rural electrification, correcting transmission bottlenecks, improvement in last mile connectivity, and replacement of diesel generators to increase the demand, Goyal said.
“Having achieved around 9% rise in coal production and more than targeted thermal power capacity addition in 2015-16, we now need to focus on demand generation. Increased rural electrification followed by power to all homes will lead to greater demand for power,” he said.
Goyal said lack of adequate transmission capacity in many states results in reduced power supply despite substantial demand. He said improved last mile connectivity would lead to reduced usage of diesel generator sets.
“If we can replace diesel generator sets with power from the grid we could see substantial increase in demand,” he said. New power generating capacity totaling 23,000 Mw was commissioned in the last financial year that ended on Thursday against a target of 20,000 Mw.
Share of hydropower generation in India has shrunk to just 15%, though the country ranks fifth in the world in hydroelectric potential.
Long construction period, lack of transport infrastructure, geological risks, land acquisition and environmental and religious concerns have slowed hydropower projects including 50,000 Mw being allocated to private companies in north and northeast India.
The power ministry is working on a plan to shift to electric vehicles by 2030, and has significantly stepped up the use of energy-efficient LED lighting.
NEW DELHI: Government today expressed hope that it may auction four ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) in the next fiscal.
“Hopefully in next fiscal (FY17) we may auction three to four UMPPs,” Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters here.
He was speaking on the sidelines of 8th Global CSR Summit- cum-Responsible Organisation Excellence Awards organised by Assocham.
“Over the year, I have been calibrating the requirement of power and can forsee that we will need these UMPPs into place. So even though we made announcements last year, it did not make prudent business sense to rush it, so we sat. We made the documents, which are very robust… that should be going to the Cabinet soon and once it approves the new document we will start bidding,” Goyal said.
The minister in January had said the government will auction three ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) by March, including Tilaiya and Cheyyur entailing investments of Rs 80,000 crore.
The investment for an UMPP of 4,000 MW has been revised from Rs 20,000 crore to about Rs 27,000 crore each recently on basis of rise in the price of coal and land.
Power Secretary P K Pujari in March had said the government may not be able to float tenders for three ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) entailing an investment of Rs 90,000 crore by March-end due to some legal glitch.
In last year’s budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to set up five new UMPPs of 4,000 MW each in the plug-and-play mode.
Voicing concern over 2% corporate social responsibility spending norm for companies, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that CSR is not something that can be “forced down somebody’s throat”.
“I personally feel, 2% has become a budget and budget is a restraint and budget is not something which means that you are going to spend that,” the Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister said.
He was speaking at a CSR Awards-cum-Summit organised by Assocham. “I genuinely believe that CSR is not something that you force down somebody’s throat because the moment there is something which is made mandatory then it becomes ritualistic…,” Goyal said.
Under the Companies Act, certain class of profitable entities are required to shell out at least 2% of their three-year annual average net profit towards CSR activities. This norm came into force from April 1, 2014.
“So I oppose it because I say, even if we want to do it, it should be suggestive and we should encourage more and more people to go down that path rather than force it down and then the peer pressure will set in,” he added.
The minister also informed that he had opposed to making 2% corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending by private firms mandatory when it had come to the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Finance for review of the Company’s Law amendment.
“May be a good idea if all the big corporates of this country decide to recuse themselves from awards, because they are already doing a good job, they have already reached a certain scale and level, but nevertheless what we need to do is take this to people who really need to be encouraged,” he said.
Giving an example of the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme, Goyal said, “The UDAY scheme…I made it optional, nothing mandatory and almost every state is signing now.”
The Centre has allocated more than Rs 11,000 crore for bringing electricity to every nook and corner of Uttar Pradesh, despite the failure of successive governments in the state to utilize central grants meant for the purpose over the last one decade.
“The Narendra Modi government has launched two schemes to realize the goal of bringing electricity to every household in the country by 2019. The allocation for UP under these two schemes amounts to nearly 11,500 crore,” Goyal told reporters here.
He, however, pointed out “electrification has been abysmally slow” in the state over the last one decade despite billions of rupees having been sanctioned by the Centre.
“A total sum of Rs 11,715 crore had been sanctioned for the state during the 11th and the 12th Five Year Plans. The state, however, failed to reach even 50 per cent of its intended target,” he said and urged the state government to make full use of the current allocation.
Asked about possibility of the BJP making power a major issue in Assembly elections in UP, due in less than a year, Goyal said “Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not believe in treating electricity as a poll plank. He sees power as a necessity in the modern world. Our government works in accordance with the approach”.
The Power Minister arrived in the city this morning and prior to addressing the news conference paid a visit to Meja, about 40 km from here, to inspect an upcoming thermal power project besides launching schemes under DDUGJY and IPDS in the district at a cost of about Rs 58.20 crore.
He also announced that the Centre has allocated Rs 20 crore for building nine new sub-stations across the district.
Goyal will be staying here tonight and will visit the neighboring district of Pratapgarh tomorrow before boarding his return flight to New Delhi.
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