Coal India assures supply to MSME sector

In a bid to facilitate supply of coal to medium and small scale enterprise (MSME) sector, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) held a meeting with the State Governments recently at its headquarters in Kolkata. This was the first time that such a meeting was held. CIL earmarks about 8 million tonnes of coal annually, sold at notified prices, to MSME sector which constitutes brick kilns, food processing industry, lime factories, smokeless fuel plants, coke oven units and other small industries that rely on coal for their manufacturing process.

In line with the New Coal Distribution Policy of Government of India, consumers in small and medium sectors having annual requirement of less than 4,200 tonnes of coal and otherwise not having any access to purchase coal or sign a FSA (fuel supply agreement) get coal through State-nominated agencies.

Considering the large number of MSME consumers, CIL’s subsidiary companies entered into bi-lateral FSAs with State Government- nominated agencies who, in turn, distribute the coal to MSME consumers as per their requirements.

“The success of this endeavour depends much on the effective control of logistics and distribution mechanism by respective state governments," said a senior CIL official. State government representatives felt more such meetings should be held periodically at the operating level at subsidiary headquarters, a CIL release said.