Opinion Cut delays in clearances

At stake is the turf war between the two ministries on what terms to sign the fuel supply agreements. Uma Shankar has blamed the coal ministry saying its public sector Coal India Limited (CIL) is hurting power sector investments without the comfort of the agreements.

Without those in place,financial institutions are unwilling to go for financial closure of power projects. He has gone so far as to claim that the stranded power projects could become non-performing assets.

The dispute has broken the truce between the coal and power ministries brokered by the Prime Minister’s Office in March,after which the agreements began to be signed. 32 have been inked but another 21 remain and this includes public sector companies too.

CIL is reluctant to commit itself to an 80 per cent supply trigger for 2012-13 but there is more.

Its board does not see any reason why it should take up the responsibility to import coal too and then sell those at pooled prices. They are scared this will make the monopoly domestic producer lose about Rs 60,000 crore in twenty years that will make their approval up for scrutiny.

In the process another 5,000 MW of power has come on steam but are idling for want of coal. Industries would want the government to sort out these problems before they are promised more.

Priyadarshi is an Assistant Editor based in New Delhi.

priyadarshi.siddhanta@expressindia.com