Piyush Goyal Assured to Take Steps to Resolve Coal Imports Issue

He said the situation in the key sector has improved in the last four years.

"We will be importing less coal than what we did four years ago and the quality of coal today has never been so good," the minister said.

The government is committed to resolve all issues related to the sector, he added.

Captive power producers coming from sectors like aluminium, steel and copper have been complaining the issue of coal supply to run their plants.

In this regard, the Indian Captive Power Producers Association (ICPPA) had earlier submitted a letter to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) requesting to address the issue of coal availability and its supply.

Supply of coal is a long standing issue for the captive power producers who unlike the independent power producers (IPPs) don't produce it for commercial purpose.

Holding responsible the previous government for contributing to the issue, Goyal said "This is the weakness of the previous government that they insisted you (the players) to

design power plant on imported coal then we will allow you environmental permission to set it up.

"They could never imagine that country could have 10 per cent growth of coal production which we have this year in the first half."

In the monsoon, he said there was stress of power, the requirement shot up and coal production could not keep pace with the monsoon.

Earlier this month, the minister urged state-run Coal India Ltd to pledge self-sufficiency in production to eliminate import of the dry fuel, and look at reviving the 1-billion tonne output aim.