2. GENERAL ENERGY POLICY

and disseminating coal statistics. It is also the appellate authority in case of dispute. India’s largest coal mining company, Coal India Limited (CIL), is under the authority of the MoC.

Oil and natural gas sectors

The MoPNG is in charge of policies relating to the petroleum and natural gas sectors. The ministry co-ordinates the upstream regulator, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), and downstream regulator, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB). The ministry also co-ordinates hydrocarbon data collection (Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell) and investment through the Oil Industry Development Board. Most of the oil and gas companies in the country are PSUs, which are organised through the MoPNG. These include the county’s largest oil and gas producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the largest refiner and retailer Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), and India’s largest state-owned natural gas company GAIL, with activities in production, transmission, distribution and sales.

Climate and environment

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is in charge of environmental and forestry management and climate action planning. The MoEFCC operates centres of excellence to increase public awareness of the environment, for example the Centre for Environment Education, Centre for Ecological Sciences and Centre for Mining Environment. The Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change brings together all ministers and non-governmental members (think tanks, non-governmental organisations) to drive the implementation of India’s climate policies.

Other ministries

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry and its Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade are in charge of the “Make in India” programme to develop domestic manufacturing, including in the energy sector. The Department of Commerce under this ministry formulates, implements and monitors India’s foreign trade policy. A Ministry of Water was created in 2019.

Other ministries that indirectly or partly deal with energy issues are: the Ministry of Finance with oversight of subsidy programmes and the financial health and restructuring of the energy sector; the Ministry of Railways, which manages India’s rail network and operations; the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), which organises and co-ordinates science and technology activities; and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which is in charge of collecting and disseminating a broad range of statistics. In addition, the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers is responsible for policy making, planning, development and regulation of chemicals and petrochemical industries in India.

Governance of public companies in the energy sector

India’s largest companies in which the GoI holds more than 50% are referred to as PSUs. Central government owns PSUs across the energy sector, notably in mining and exploration (crude oil, coal and natural gas), petroleum refining and marketing, power generation, nuclear energy and power transmission.

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2. GENERAL ENERGY POLICY

The top ten profit-making companies in India are energy sector PSUs, according to the latest survey of PSUs in 2017-18 (see Table 2.1). In coal mining, CIL was responsible for 82% of the country’s coal production in 2017. In refining, IOCL is the largest operator, owning nine refineries with 28% of India’s total refining capacity. (Reliance, a private company, is the second-largest player in refining and India’s largest oil product exporter.) ONGC is India's largest oil and gas exploration and production company. It produces 62% of India’s crude oil and condensate and 72% of its natural gas. In the power sector, around 45% of generation is privately owned, a sharp increase since 2008 when only 8% was private. (This does not include private generation of electricity for auto-consumption, owned by industry players, often referred to as captive power generators.) The majority of generation (55%) is owned by government (30% by the states and 25% by the central government). Owned by the central government, the NPCIL is responsible for the generation of nuclear power and operates 21 nuclear reactors. With a government shareholding of 57.9%, Powergrid owns and operates the interstate transmission lines. In 2017 the GoI held 58.32% of the Rural Electrification Corporation, a share which has been reduced from 81.82% in 2008 (through public offerings) to leverage funding for the country’s electrification.

The net profit margins of energy PSUs are the highest in the mining and exploration sector, followed by generation, while transmission has a net profit margin of below 4% (DPE, 2018). In the power sector, the DPE benchmarked PSUs against the private sector (Adani Power, Tata Power). NTPC achieved a net profit margin of 12% and NPCIL 29% (Table 2.2), while private generators reported negative net profit margins in 2017/18.

Table 2.1 Top-performing profit-making PSUs in India

Note: A crore is 10 million.

Source: DPE (2018), Public Enterprises Survey 2017-18, https://dpe.gov.in/public-enterprises-survey-2017-18.

Table 2.2 Key financial indicators of PSUs vs private companies in the power sector, 2017-18

Source: DPE (2018), Public Enterprises Survey 2017-18, https://dpe.gov.in/public-enterprises-survey-2017-18.

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