'No need to import coal'

NAGPUR: The Union ministry of power made a startling claim that coal import was not necessary owing to improved generation and availability, thus exposing the Mahagenco which was importing costly coal.
An affidavit in this regard was filed in the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court last week by deputy director in Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Neerja Verma. A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Swapna Joshi asked the Mahagenco to reply on the ministry's claims.
The court was hearing a PIL by activist Anil Wadpalliwar through counsel Shreerang Bhandarkar contending that due to the ongoing tussle between WCL and Mahagenco, all consumers are unnecessarily forced to shell out more for power supply. He also claimed that steep hike in the generation cost is due to short supply of domestic coal and import of costly coal by the power utilities.During the last hearing, the court asked Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to inform on progress and action taken in alleged multi-crore scam in supply of coal.
Earlier, the ministry stated that domestic coal availability in the power plants has been improved in country during last two to three years. As a result, the import of coal by power plants required for blending with t domestic coal has declined during last two years."Due to initiative of ministry and Coal India Limited (CIL) for substitution of imported coal with the domestic ones since last year, no programme of import is being given by CEA. The CIL had also organized one-to-one interaction with power generators to devise customized strategy as per suitability of each power station. It had already started supplying domestic coal against the earlier requirement of imported coal for many power plants," Verma said.
She added Mahagenco may apply for coal linkage under 'New Coal Allocation Policy -2017' which is a scheme for harnessing and allocation of coal in India issued by the ministry of coal under the policy which is for the central/state government generation companies (GENCOS). As per Clause B (i) of SHATI policy, CIL/SCCL may grant linkage to central/ state government utilities based on the recommendation of ministry of power.

Onion export jumps 56 per cent in April-July, but India now importing

Onion export increased by 47.69 per cent to Rs 1,443.09 crore from Rs 977.84 crore.
New Delhi: India's onion export rose by 56 per cent to 12.29 lakh tonnes in April-July this year, but the country has now gone in for import of the kitchen staple as retail prices have shot up to Rs 65-70 per kg because of tight supplies.

In value terms too, the onion export increased by 47.69 per cent to Rs 1,443.09 crore in the period under review, from Rs 977.84 crore a year ago, it said.

Last week, the government allowed state-owned agencies like MMTC to import onion from countries like Egypt and China to increase availability and cool retail prices that have skyrocketed to Rs 65-70 a kg level in many parts of the country.

Onion exports

According to data maintained by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), the country has exported 12.29 lakh tonnes of onion during April-July of 2017-18, up 56 per cent from 7.88 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

"Exports increased during April-July because of two reasons: firstly, there was no minimum export price (MEP) and second, the global prices remained much higher," the state- owned National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) acting Director P K Gupta told PTI.
The exports helped farmers get better rates for their produce during the first quarter of the fiscal when local prices had fallen sharply. However, with old stocks getting depleted and rise in local prices, the exports have slowed, he said.

According to the DGIS data, exporters realised Rs 11,737 per tonne of onion during April-July of this fiscal. MEP is the minimum rate below which export is not allowed.

Onion MEP was scrapped in December 2015. Despite demand from Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, the MEP was not imposed in August when retail onion prices had started showing an upward trend.

"Now, retail onion prices have come under pressure because the old crop is getting exhausted. Also, new kharif crop arrival is less," Gupta said.

For instance, in the national capital, the average retail price of onion was ruling at Rs 15 per kg in April and gradually rose to Rs 30-35 in July and by October-end, the rate crossed Rs 50, as per the ministry data. However, local vendors are selling at Rs 65-70 per kg depending on the quality and locality in Delhi.

A similar rise in prices of onion was witnessed in other cities also. To boost local supply, the government facilitated import of onion through private traders, who have purchased 11,400 tonnes from the overseas market so far. The new kharif crop is likely to be lower by 10 per cent as area sown is less by 30 per cent.

The production assessment will be known once the harvesting completes, a senior consumer affairs ministry official said. It may be noted that 40 per cent of the country's total onion crop is produced in the kharif season, and the rest during the rabi season.

The kharif crop, however, cannot be stored. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat are major onion-producing states.  

Chile favours India's candidature to APEC: former President Eduardo Frei

Chile is open to support the candidature for membership of India in APEC but all the resolutions for the entry of a new country its decided by all the members of the group, pointed out former Chilean President Eduardo Frei ahead of APEC Summit in Vietnam next month.
Chile has an open economy and a stable institutional and political system, who installs a healthy business environment. With the 10 trade agreements signed between Chile and Latin-American countries, the possibilities to export and make business in the region are maximized, Frei told a select group of media here during his visit to push Indo-Chile economic partnership.
"Even more, Chile is one of founders of the Pacific Alliance, the most successful integration movement of the history of the Latin American region. Actually, its functions are becoming to been a platform of political articulation, economic and commercial integration and projection to the world, with emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region," noted Frei .
" I would like to express that the Trade Agreement that India and Chile was established in 2007, and then expanded in 2017 is not a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), it’s a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). The nature of this Agreement is relative minus ambitions of an FTA, because it’s does not contain chapters related intellectual propriety, electronic commerce, gender issues, environment or investment, among others. The entry on force of the PTA plus, has been the 16th of May of 2017,months ago. For this reason, today, is difficult to highlight an increase in trade on either side."

"Nonetheless, I trust, that the PTA Plus will increase the trade, in the same way that the exported non-copper products have triplicated from US$ 51 millions in 2006 to US$ 178 millions in 2016."