No shortage of anything; reports of coal crisis baseless: FM Sitharaman

TIL Desk/Business/Boston/ Amid reports of the ongoing coal shortage in the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stressed that there is no shortage and termed these as absolutely baseless , saying India is a power surplus country.

Sitharaman said that Power Minister R K Singh went on record just two days ago when he said absolutely baseless information is floating around that there is probably shortage of coal, shortage of other inventories which will lead to a sudden gap in the supply demand situation in the energy consumption.

“Absolute baseless! There is no shortage of anything. In fact, if I recall the minister’s statement, every power producing installation has the next four days’ 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 the conversation organised by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Sitharaman was asked by Harvard Professor Lawrence Summers about energy shortage and reports of reduced coal inventories in India.