Operations have commenced in seven of the 67 coal mines that were auctioned or allotted by the government, while the remaining blocks are at various stages of development.

“Out of the 67 coal mines successfully auctioned/allotted, seven coal mines have been granted mine operating permission and are operational. Rest are at various stages of development,” power and coal minister Piyush Goyal told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Thursday.

The minister said at this stage it was not possible to estimate the yield from all the 204 coal mines, the allocations of which were cancelled. Many of the de-allocated mines are regionally or partly explored and mine plans are not available in all cases of explored coal mines.

In another reply, Goyal said the government has taken proactive measures to ensure that statutory clearances, including environment and forest, are transferred to the successful bidders and allottees expeditiously.

“So far, out of a total of 67 coal mines successfully auctioned and allotted, vesting/allotment orders have been issued in respect of 45 coal mines. Out of these 45 coal mines, environment clearances have been transferred in favour of successful bidder/allottee for 37 coal mines.”

Forest clearance has been transferred in favour of successful bidder/allottee of 25 coal mines. In respect of seven coal mines, no forest clearance is involved and in respect of five mines, transfer of forest clearance is not required as the prior allottees are the successful bidders/allottees.

The Centre has taken up the matter of expediting various clearances with the concerned state governments and has been pursuing with the authorities concerned for bringing the auctioned/alloted mines into production as soon as possible, he said.

Piyush Goyal, minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, on Saturday said the Budget for fiscal 2015-16 will touch the lives of 125 crore Indians, and added that it will transform the future of the people from a pension less society to a socially secure society.

“For the first time in independent India, the Budget has touched the lives of 125 crore Indians. This is a Budget which impacts every individual in India. It is a budget which reaches the poor, the farmer and the workers,” Goyal told ANI.

“It is a budget which transforms people’s future from a pension less society to a socially secure society,” he added.

Union Minister of Finance presented Budget for the fiscal 2015-16 in the Parliament earlier on Saturday.

The Finance Minister announced a host of measures including the slashing of corporate tax to 25 per cent from 30 per cent over the next four years and the General Anti-Avoidance Rules or GAAR would be deferred by two years.

He also announced that the government will target a 3.9 per cent fiscal deficit for year starting April 1, 2015, adding that the real GDP growth is expected to be 7.4 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also hailed the Union Budget as a budget with a clear vision, and one that is progressive, positive, practical, pragmatic and prudent. 

India is on the cusp of a big leap towards achieving 24×7 power supply for all its citizens and there is enough scope in the system to reduce power tariff along the way,coal and power minister Piyush Goyal has said.

“We’ve had a historical one year, almost broken every record possible on the way and at the end of the first year, looking at our short-term and medium-term plans, I have absolutely no hesitation that we can, we will, achieve 24×7 power,” Goyal told TOI in an interview.

He accepted that transmission bottleneck was proving a handicap since for the first time, the country had surplus power and surplus coal.

“Every one of our power plants has adequate coal for its requirement and there is no critical plant left,” he said. “I am standing on the cusp of a situation where I say and accept there is a transmission bottleneck. But all other indicators vindicate our work in the last year or so. For example, coal production is up 8.3% or 8.4%. Coal to power plants is up nearly 10%. Gas-fired power plants are now getting revived after the successful auctions,” he added.

Goyal said the government had brought fuel supply under “some sort of control”, which had brought energy deficit down to the lowest level in history at 3.6%, while generation was up 8.5%.

To prove his point, Goyal gave the example of questions MPs raise in Parliament. “If you look at the questions of the monsoon session and the winter session, monsoon (questions) was about 60-70% of coal shortage, winter may have been 30-35%. This session, I did not have one single question, starred or unstarred, regarding coal shortage,” he said.

These improvements, Goyal said, were made without having to raise tariff. He said honest and efficient systems could improve viability. “And if you harness the power of technology and think out of the box, a combination of all these together, I believe, can bring down tariffs.”

As an example, he said some states had T&D losses, power theft upwards of 40-50%. “There is a state which has 70%. Many states are in the region of 30-50%. I have very often held a view and I am public about it that if you run your operations inefficiently, you ca’t expect your consumer to pay for your inefficiencies.”

India’s renewable energy sector is looking at attracting $ 200 billion in investments as several domestic and international firms queue up to tap the potential of green power, the government said today. 

“In terms of companies which are participating, several have committed to invest in renewable energy and those commitments total to numbers which even are more than the entire mission we have set up,” Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters here.

“We are looking at nearly twice the amount of interest than what our target is, more than 200 GW or 2,00,000 MW, with investments of $ 200 billion,” he said. 

The government aims to have 1,00,000 MW of installed solar power capacity by 2022 from the present around 3,000 MW. 

Goyal said the government is also looking at rooftop solar model. “We are not only looking at large plants so 40,000 MW we are planning to do through rooftop solar.” 

As for bringing the states on board for the renewable energy programme, he said: “I am talking to 7-8 states where there is a lot of solar energy potential. Looking at whether we can have some common and simplified way to set up solar plant.” 

The government may even contemplate making the land owners as stakeholders in the projects so that they get annual or monthly rent. 

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is organising Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet & Expo (RE-Invest) from 15-17 February 2015 in New Delhi. The central theme of RE-Invest is to attract large scale investments for the renewable energy sector in India. 

At present, renewable energy contributes about 6.5 per cent in the electricity mix of the country. It is proposed that this would be taken to about 12 per cent in the next three years.

Courtsey: The Economic Times

Power minister Piyush Goyal tells CNBC-TV18 that Coal India  divestment will not take place in December, but could be in the new year. He adds that Coal India has detailed plans for ramp-up of its production. On gas price pooling, he says that the government will have to work out the economics and though the idea is under consideration, it has very small significance in the overall scheme of things. Below is the verbatim transcript of Piyush Goyal’s interview with CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan.

Q: On Coal India divestment

A: Coal India itself has very detailed plans for the ramp up of its production going up to a billion tonne by 2019. We have very credible plans which have been worked upon with great sincerity and credible plans which will be unfolded in the next few days. Then once our plans are unveiled, the market also will recognise our efforts of taking this to a billion tonne. And this is December, usually no issue opens up in December. It is that period of the year when the world is kind of on a break or sabbatical. I am sure in the new year you’ll hear active movement in disinvestment, there’s absolutely no effort to put it on the backburner. Gas pooling is one such idea which is also under consideration. In any case the gas prices have come down quite significantly and the trend seems to suggest that it will go down further. So in any case, that’s not something which is going to very significantly impact power prices.

Q: Like coal, even gas price pooling is not a priority at this point of time?

A: We may do it. It depends, we will have to work out the economics, but now it has a very small significance in the overall scheme of things.

Reiterating the promise of 24×7 electricity to all by 2019, Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said use of information technology will help in achieving the target.

“IT-enabled smart grids can have tremendous impact on the energy sector in India – right from power generation to power consumption. We will ensure that all Indians have 24×7 electricity by March 2019,” Goyal said while addressing the inaugural session of Digital India Conclave 2014.

The minister said the government is committed to preventing widespread coal thefts by use of CCTV cameras.

Goyal had earlier said the government has initiated speedy environmental clearances, steps to protect environment, renewed thrust to wind power capacity addition besides clearing the long-pending transmission projects worth Rs. 12,272 crore.

The minister had stated that these steps would be the government’s vision for providing 24×7 consistent power.

The government has also approved Rs. 43,033-crore rural electrification scheme, Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

The scheme will replace the existing Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

The scheme includes strengthening and augmentation of sub transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including metering of distribution transformers and feeders.