Paradip Port Trust (PPT) is awaiting a positive response on its request to waive license norms for storing imported coal at its warehouse.
The port is mandated to secure a storage licence and a transport license for all mineral transactions under the Odisha Mineral (Prevention of Theft, Smuggling and Illegal mining and Regulation of Possession, Storage and Transportation) Rules, 2007.
The norm is intended to check unauthorised use of the stateÂ’s natural resources. The time-consuming and unnecessary norm to get a storing license for imported coal is blocking evacuation of imported coal and is affecting the efficiency of the port operation and income, the port said.
The port, which is the biggest coal handling port in the country, witnessed 24.1 per cent decline in thermal coal import in December because of storing problem inside the port area and depletion of contracted volume of importing agencies.
The imports stood at 762,775 tonne last month, against 1 million tonne in November. The port gets about a fourth of its Rs 400 crore annual revenue from coal imports.
The port complains that such a norm creates unnecessary hurdles in the growth of business and hence it wrote to the state government to waive mandatory storing license norms for imported coal in October.
According to the port authorities, since the imported mineral is obtained from outside the national territory, the OMPTS Rule must not be applied in this case.
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