India'scoal imports during the year ended March 31 slipped 8% year over year to 199.9million tonnes, attributable to CoalIndia Ltd.'s augmented output,S&P Global Platts reported July 25, citing Power and Coal Minister PiyushGoyal.

CoalIndia aims to improve its production in the current fiscal year to 598.61million tonnes, an 11.11% improvement from the prior year's 538.75 million tonnes,the report said, citing the minister.

Headded that coal stockpiles at the country's 101 power plants totaled 31.39million tonnes as of July 19, enabling power plants to operate for 23 dayscompared with the standard requirement of 21, wrote Platts.

In aprevious report, Goyal announced a projected 20% plunge to about 160.2 million tonnes in coalimports for thecurrent fiscal year against the previous year's total.

S&P Global Platts andS&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.