Karandikars & Associates

Trade Coal Lignite

Despite the availability of huge resources of coal in the country, coal is being imported to bridge the gap between domestic demand and domestic supply. India is the second largest importer of coal in the World

Import dependency of India is owing to various factors, including smaller and lower quality reserves of coking coal in India, less availability of high GCV coal, challenges in developing new coal mines related to land acquisition, delay on obtaining statutory clearance etc. and logistics constraints for evacuation

As per the current import policy, coal is kept under Open General License (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal from the source of their choice as per their contractual prices on payment of applicable duty

Bulk of the coal in the country is imported by the Non-Regulated Sector (NRS)

Much of the non-coking coal is imported from Indonesia and South Africa and coking coal from Australia

For 2023-24, India`s gross coal imports were 264.5 million tons, and there were small exports of 1.5 million tons, principally to neighbouring Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan, leading to net imports of 263 million tons

Lignite is domestically produced and consumed, there is a very small trade in Lignite