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Coal Minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, on Friday said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) would decide on the disinvestment of Coal India.
“If the Cabinet decides to sell shares, disinvestment would happen,” Jaiswal told media persons at the CII Clean Coal India 2013 conference.
Buyback/dividend
However, the Minister said that the decision on buyback of shares or offering special dividend would be decided by Coal India board and the Government has no role to play.
Coal India shares are trading at Rs 292.90 down 0.37 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange at around 12.19 p.m. on Friday.
There has been ambiguity over the Government’s move to sell its stake in the public sector miner. As on September 30, Government owns 90 per cent stake in Coal India, while FIIs hold 5.51 per cent, DIIs have 2.34 per cent and remaining 2.15 per cent is with other shareholders.
The labour unions of Coal India have opposed the Centre’s move to dilute the Government’s stake in the miner.
“In September, coal production has increased 15.6 per cent, offtake by 9.2 per cent and coal supply to power sector by 9 per cent as compared to September, 2012,” said Jaiswal.
In the quarter of the current financial year, coal production has shown a growth of 9.6 per cent, coal dispatches grew 7.2 per cent and coal supplies to the power sector increases 7 per cent when compared to the similar months previous year.
“This has led to a growth of 7 per cent in coal based power generation,” the Coal Minister reiterated.
WASHERIES
Currently, Coal India has 17 operational washeries. Of this, 12 are dedicated to wash coking coal with a capacity of 22.18 million tonne per year (mtpa) and five are operational for non-coking coal with a capacity of 17.22 mtpa.
Coal India has planned to create additional washing capacity through 16 new coal washeries in first phase. The total installed capacity of these new washeries will be 92.1 mtpa. Of this, 10 will be dedicated for non-coking coal with capacity of 73.5 mtpa and six for coking coal and their total capacity will be 18.6 mtpa.
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