Close on the heels of roll back in prices of certain categories of coal, under the new pricing GCV (gross calorific value) regime introduced by Coal India Ltd from January 1, 2012, the Coal Consumers' Association of India (CCAI) has urged the Union Coal Ministry to address certain issues pertaining to the switchover.
These mainly pertain to installation of proper samplers (the bomb-calorimeter) which are necessary for the determination of the gross calorific value of the coal.
They also wanted withdrawal of the present embargo on joint sampling for coal cargo which could now be done only if the despatch exceeded four lakh tonnes.
The association said that there was need to resolve these issues without which the very purpose of switching over to the GCV regime would be defeated.
Former CIL chairman P. S. Bhattacharyya termed the price roll back unfortunate. Such happenings eroded the credibility of the policies followed by CIL since deregulation of coal prices in 2000, he added.
He said that import parity of coal prices (as argued while rolling out GCV) should not be a consideration for framing pricing policies unless the coal offered to consumers was of comparable quality and consistency.