Coal imports fell during the April-August period of the current financial year

Country’s overall coal imports fell 12 per cent year-on-year to 94 million tonnes in April-August 2021, mainly due to substantial reduction in import of non-coking coal.

Coal ministry said in a statement that due to this fall in coal imports, not only did it lead to saving of exchequer’s money, but also reduced nation’s dependency on imported coal, as prices of dry fuel have been soaring in the international market.

“Due to a substantial reduction of import of non-coking coal in the current year, the total import of coal has also reduced to 94.15 million tonnes in the period from April to August 2021 as compared with 107.01 million tonnes during the corresponding period of 2019-20, a decrease of about 12 per cent,” the statement said.

The import of all varieties of non coking coal reduced 16.09 per cent to 70.85 million tonnes in the April-August period of the ongoing fiscal over the corresponding months of 2019-20.

The country had imported 84.44 million tonnes of all varieties of non coking coal during the corresponding months of the financial year 2019-20, the statement said.

The 2020-21 fiscal has not been taken into consideration as industrial production got severely hit due to the outbreak of the pandemic.