India Inc raises red flag on mines verdict
Coal import bill to swell by Rs18,000 crore sensex drops
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-25 00:55 GMT
New Delhi: India Inc has said that the decision of Supreme Court to cancel allocation of 214 coal blocks is likely to have an adverse impact on Indian economy. “The decision taken by the Supreme Court to cancel all but four coal blocks is likely to adversely impact the domestic coal supplies in the country and will erode investor confidence,” said CII President Ajay Shriram.
India’s coal import bill is likely to go up further by around Rs18,000 crore due to the cancellation of coal blocks, according to a recent report by Macquaire. “In the event of complete deallocation of the coal blocks, the import bill of India would jump by $3 billion. The two most impacted companies are Jindal Steel and Power and Hindalco,” the report had said.
Reacting to the news, the Sensex lost 31.00 points to close at 26,744.69 while the Nifty closed at 8002.40 down 15.15 points.“Metal and power stocks witnessed huge sell off after SC deallocated 214 coal blocks from private players. JSPL lost close to 14 per cent intraday while NTPC, Coal India and Reliance Power shares gained as 4 blocks were exempted from the decision,” said Kiran Kumar Kavikondala, chief executive officer, WealthRays Securities.
India had imported around 168.4 million tonnes of coal worth Rs 95,000 crore last fiscal and this figure is expected to rise in the current year. India is the third largest importer despite having fourth largest coal reserves in the world.