No Shortage Of Anything; Reports Of Coal Crisis Baseless: FM Sitharaman

Mumbai: Amid reports of an ongoing coal shortage in the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there is no shortage and termed it “absolutely baseless” and asserted that India is a power surplus country.

Sitharaman said that Power Minister RK Singh had gone on record two days back when he said that absolutely baseless information is floating around that maybe there is a shortage of coal, lack of other inventories which led to a supply-demand situation in energy.

“Absolutely baseless! There is no shortage of anything. In fact, if I recall the minister’s statement, every power generation establishment has the stock absolutely available within their own premises and the supply chain has not broken at all,” Sitharaman said here at Harvard Kennedy School on Tuesday.

During an interaction organized by the Mosawar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Sitharaman was asked by Harvard professor Lawrence Summers about reports of energy shortages and coal shortages in India.

“There is not going to be any shortfall which could lead to any shortfall in supply. So it takes care of the power situation of India. Now we are a power surplus country.”

“We are also taking a fairly good amount of risks to see what the basket of energy is available for India, how much is based on fossil fuel and how much comes from renewable and we are always looking at ways in which it can be shifted in favour of renewable energy. So the picture is not of short supply, but it’s also a picture of newer components into the basket,” she said.

(With Agency Inputs)

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