In the last three years, coal imports have decreased by 25% as India works to increase domestic production and decrease reliance on imports. However, due to global geopolitical unrest that has put pressure on supply chains, India and other countries have been forced to increase their reliance on the dry fuel rather than switching to more environmentally friendly energy sources. The government imported 248.54 million tonnes of coal in 2019-20, which has come down by 25 per cent to 186.06 million tonnes in the
current fiscal of 2022-23 (till December 2022), according to Coal Ministry data. In fact, coal imports have gradually come down since 2019-20, as in 2020-21, it was 215.25 million tonnes while in 2021-22, it further came down to 208.93 million tonnes. In 2022-23, it further slid below the 200 million tonnes mark to 186 million tonnes till December 2022.
In 2018-19, India's coal imports stood at 235.35 million tonnes and had risen to 248.54 million tonnes in 2019-20, a rise of 5.6 per cent. However since 2019-20 till the current fiscal, imports have been following a downward trajectory. Though India imports coal from several countries like Australia, Canada, China, Mozambique, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand and the US, its bulk of imports are from Indonesia.
India is aiming to improve its domestic dry fuel production and plans to produce 911 million tonnes in the current fiscal year in order to decrease dependence on imported coal. This is due to the fact that the Russia-Ukraine war has a negative impact on supply chains for green fuels, forcing India to rely on coal. The government intends to raise coal production to 1,012 billion tonnes in 2023–2024 and to 1.3 billion tonnes in 2025–2026.
