New Delhi: Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal will meet on Thursday to discuss a host of issues, including environment related matters concerning the two sectors and the quality of fuel being supplied. "We have identified four-five issues related to environment (clearance), which we will discuss with the coal minister on the April 18," Scindia told reporters.
The coal quality issue will also be dicussed, he added. On whether coal price pooling would be discussed at the meeting, he said that it would be discussed at a separate meeting with Finance Minster P Chidambaram and Coal Minister. Price pooling is the averaging of prices of domestic and imported coal to get a uniform feedstock price in the country.
PSU majors -- Coal India and NTPC -- are at loggerheads over the quality of coal being supplied. NTPC, which is under the Power Ministry, has refused to sign fuel supply agreement (FSA) with Coal India citing concerns over quality of fuel. Coal India's eastern subsidiary earlier this month had stopped supply to NTPC claiming that the power producer had not cleared dues since October 2012.
After government intervention, CIL had restored 50 per cent supplies pending resolution of the issue. Last week, the heads of two state-run companies met Coal Secretary SK Srivastava to find an amicable solution to the crisis. Also, Coal India had agreed to resume full supplies even as the power producer continued to raise the quality issue.
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