Zero coal import remains elusive as Centre leans on foreign supplies again

Move to make it a must for units running on imported coal to remain fully functional comes amid 50-80% spike in global coal price

The latest directive from the Union Ministry of Power to generation units running on imported coal, to mandatorily keep their plants functional, comes at a time when coal prices have jumped in the range of 50-80 per cent in the global market. While the ministry has formed a committee that will decide the selling price of electricity from these units, experts say it would still lead to power tariff increase.

On Monday, the ministry revoked Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, to direct imported coal-based power plants to operate and generate power at full capacity. To pass through the