Crisis in coal could become a major impediment to India's economic growth as the domestic supply of the fuel is lagging far behind demand.

As demand for coal is increasing by more than 10 per cent per annum and domestic supply is rising merely 3-4 per cent, the country's coal imports are growing at a compounded annual rate of around 23 per cent.

In terms of rupees, the rise in coal imports has been nearly 15 per cent (CAGR) during the past five years.

Coal India Ltd's former chairman Partha S Bhattacharya said, "The gap between domestic demand and supply of coal is likely to increase further given that production is growing by 5-6% only while demand by more than 10%."

RV Shahi, former union power secretary, agreed with Mr. Bhattacharya's assessment and said that the country's coal import would jump due to stagnation in CIL's production.

Between FY2008-09 and FY2012-13, the country's coal import bill ballooned by a whopping 75 per cent. In April-December quarter of 2012, India spent Rs 64,852 crore on coal imports, up 72 per cent over the corresponding period five years back.

Massive coal imports have already become a burden on India's current account. Further increase in coal imports would put further swell the country's the current account deficit (CAD), which widened to a record 6.7 per cent of the gross domestic product in the December quarter.