India’s coal import bill crosses Rs.81,000 crore

It is not just crude oil import bill which is straining our balance of payments position but coal import bill too is catching up to add to the growing list of worries of our Finance Minister. For just concluded financial year, India’s coal import bill has crossed whopping Rs.81,000 crore. Remember ten years ago our coal import bill was just Rs.5,000 crore, thus, imports have gone up by more than 16 times (in value terms) in ten years. However, in terms of volume, growth is less sharp with imports going up by just 6 times during last ten years. So our import bill of coal is going up mainly because of hardening of coal price in international market and also due to rupee depreciation. Recent sharp depreciation in rupee may further push up our import bill of coal during the current fiscal. However, general slowdown in the economy may help to contain the volume growth at a reasonable level, thereby giving some breathing space to the government.