New Delhi The government is likely to postpone the implementation of coal price pooling because of the strong opposition from consuming states who feel it would raise the cost of power generators and increase tariff for consumers.

Under price pooling mechanism, CIL would have subsidised the price of imported coal (which is 50% costlier now) by raising domestic coal prices and supplying full quantity of coal at uniform price to consumers. The pooling mechanism, being finalised at the instance of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), is meant to address coal shortage being faced by consumers and would be especially helpful to new power plants to cut the cost of fuel imports.