Coal India hike prices for both power, non-power consumers

Representation picThe Coal India board has approved a noncoking coal price hike for both power and nonpower consumers The price increase is expected to push the miners revenue up by Rs 1956 crore for the remaining period of the current fiscal Effective from Tuesday the revision is projected to lead to an incremental annual revenue of Rs 6421 crore The board has approved revision of noncoking coal prices with effect from January 9 This will be applicable to all the subsidiaries of Coal India including NEC for regulated and non regulated sectors the miner said in a late night filing on MondayDue to this revision Coal India will earn approximately an incremental revenue of Rs 1956 crore for the balance period of the current fiscal 201718 and the projected annual incremental revenue would be Rs 6421 crore an official said Reacting to the price revision Coal Consumers Association of Indias Secretary General Subhasri Chaudhuri told IANS Coal consumers have no alternative but to bear the brunt of the price hikeOf late Coal Indias subsidiaries have increased peripheral charges like surface transport charges for transporting coal from pit heads to siding in the zerothree km slab The miner had also introduced evacuation facility charges at Rs 50 per tonne from December However in the latest revision the miner reduced prices for some grades of coalAccording to sources the price hike across various coal grades range between 22 per cent on the higher side to 3 per cent on the lower side In some grades of coal the prices were revised downward Following the price revision Coal Indias shares closed at 563 per cent higher at BSE on Tuesday while the Sensex was up 026 per cent at 3444319 pointsAccording to Coal India official the miner is likely to introduce a new pricing mechanism for coal which would be linked to quality and the new mechanism is expected to be implemented in the next few months Under the new mechanism the prices would be computed on every unit of gross calorific value he saidIn the last month the miner had introduced evacuation facility charges at Rs 50 per tonne for despatch of coal except despatch through rapid loading arrangement and as a result the company was expected to generate approximately an additional revenue of Rs 2500 crore for the full year and approximately Rs 800 crore for rest of the current fiscalThe price of thermal grade coal with gross calorific value GCV of 3100 kcalkg to 4300 kcalkg for supply to power sector has been increased by about 1518 per cent This along with the levy of evacuation charges of Rs 50 per million tonnes is estimated to increase the cost of generation for coalbased power plants by about 1315 paise per unit as per rating agency ICRA estimatesGiven that coal based generators with an automatic pass through of fuel costs account for about 60 per cent of the total power procured by discoms and assuming a partial passthrough by other IPPs Independent Power Producers with competitivelybid PPAs Power Purchase Agreements which account for balance this translates into about 9 paise per unit increase in power procurement cost for discoms on an all India basis agencys Group Head and Senior Vice President Sabyasachi Majumdar saidIn turn assuming the average ATampC loss level at around 23 per cent in the country we estimate the impact on cost of power supply per unit sold and retail tariffs assuming full pass through by state regulators at around 11 paisa per unit or about 2 per cent tariff hike he added In January 2017 the miners subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Limited BCCL increased coking coal prices by about 20 per cent and its another subsidiary Central Coalfields too had hiked its pricesCatch up on all the latest Mumbai National and International news hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go