Even as electricity demand is rising in conjunction with an incipient revival of business and economic activities post the second Covid wave, a large section of power plants in the country are precariously placed with fast-depleting coal stocks. According to government data, units with combined capacity of 90,000 mega-watt (MW) have fuel stocks that would last for less than eight days. Of this, a capacity of 20,000 MW is hamstrung as Coal India (CIL) is withholding fresh supplies demanding that past dues be cleared.
CIL’s net receivables were as high as Rs 17,100 crore at the end of July. Speaking about outstanding receivables in the Q1FY22 earnings conference on August 12, Pramod Agarwal, chairman and managing director, had said, “We will try to reduce (receivables) further in the coming months and we are putting constant pressure on the buyers.”
