Coal Import Monitoring System

The Government of India is to implement Coal Import Monitoring System (CIMS). The system will require the importers to submit advance information online and obtain an automatic registration number to handle coal imports in the country.

About the Coal Import Monitoring System

• The importers of Bituminous coal, anthracite coal, coking coal and steam coal are to be monitored under the system.
• Under the system, the importers should submit advance information about the import items online.
• It will also monitor steel products being dumped in India. The CIMS is to monitor the compliance of dumping duty to be imposed on cheap, less quality steel products.
• The importer should enter the registration number and expiry date of registration in the bill of entry.
• The system is to come into effect from February 1, 2021.

Significance of the system

The monitoring system is launched to make the recently auctioned commercial coal mining viable in the country. Also, the system envisages to keep record of imported volumes of coal along with details of specific grades. The system will help largely as the current coal import data is compiled with a lag of two to three months.

The information being collected under the system will help Government of India fine-tune its policies to discourage coal imports.

Dumping Duty on Steel

The Government of India is to impose dumping duty on steel for five years. This is to be imposed only on certain steel products from a few countries such as Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan. This is being done to guard the domestic players from importing cheap quality steel.

The dumping duty on these steel products are also subjected under Coal Imported Monitoring System. The products are mainly those related to flat-rolled stainless steel.

Need for the system

The coal consumption of India is to increase in the coming years. It could increase reach 1.15 billion tonnes. The coal imports are increasing. The Coal imports in 2019-20 were 5% higher than the previous year. India has set a target to increase the coal production to 1 billion tonnes by 2024.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2020