Coal is going to be back again as gas gets cheaper: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

 

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks on coal production.

• At an annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, he cited the example of Austria and claimed that the western world was moving to coal

Speaking about the global economic crisis, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that coal is going to come back again as gas has become cheaper. At an annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, he cited the example of Austria and claimed that the Western world was moving towards coal.

"The Western world has seen countries move to coal. Austria has already said that, and today ... they are going back to coal," Sitharaman told the media. Russia has sharply cut natural gas shipments to Europe in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the West after invading Ukraine.

In late April, Russia cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland after rejecting Moscow's demand for delivery in the Russian currency ruble.

In response to a question on his remarks earlier, the Finance Minister referred to another news story about an old thermal power plant being refurbished to generate electricity in the United Kingdom.

“In fact, it is now reviving itself as a thermal unit. So, it is not just India, many countries have gone back. And now coal is going to come back again because I think gas cannot be afforded. Or it is not available as much as you would like," Sitharaman said.

"And Europe has, of course, made a conscious decision that they cannot get any more gas from Russia, and they have to look for other sources. It's not just us (India)," Sitharaman said.

Further, Sitharaman said that the government is monitoring the growing trade deficit to find out whether there has been a disproportionate increase in the gap against a single country.

Commerce ministry data shows that India's trade deficit with China widened in 2021-22 and remained the same in 2022-23. In the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), the trade deficit was recorded at $72.9 billion, which was nearly $29 billion higher than the FY21 figure of $44 billion. The trade deficit was recorded at $48.6 billion in 2020-21.

The Finance Minister said that the trade deficit is increasing. "It's increasing across the board, which means we're importing a lot more than we're exporting. And the net is definitely going against us. But, we're also looking at whether there's a single country's economy." There has been a disproportionate increase against," Sitharaman said.