Capex plan, capital budget for FY21 pegged at Rs 10,000 crore: Coal India

The world's largest coal miner CIL on Thursday said it has lined up Rs 10,000 crore as capital expenditure (capex) for the current financial year.

"Subsidiary-wise combined capex plan and capital budget of CIL as whole for FY 2020-21 is pegged at Rs 10,000 crore," Coal India (CIL) said in a statement.

While the plant and machinery portion, including procurement of heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM), comprises the major share with over Rs 3,700 crore for the year, the expenditure on land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement involves upwards of Rs 1,900 crore, it said.

These two heads make up around 57 per cent of the overall capex of 2020-21. The balance 43 per cent is made up by the expenditure on transportation of coal evacuation, mine development, wagon procurement and others, including solar initiatives, research and development and exploration.

The capex of CIL, at Rs 844 crore during the first quarter of the current financial year, crossed the provisioned target of Rs 720 crore.

Even amid coronavirus-induced slowdown, the capex spend in the first quarter of the current financial year was 4.2 per cent higher compared to the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

CIL spent Rs 810 crore on its capital expenses in the April-June period of the previous financial year.

Of the Rs 844-crore capex, HEMM, other plants and machinery accounting for Rs 393 crore was the major component.

This was followed by spending on coal evacuation transportation infrastructure like first-mile connectivity, including coal-handling plants, silos, crusher, railway sidings and corridors worth Rs 241 crore.

Mine development & exploration and prospecting amounted to Rs 80 crore and 66 crore, respectively.

The balance was made up by the other heads.

Capex is a key scoring performance parameter in the Memorandum of Understanding that CIL signs every year with its administrative ministry, a senior executive of the company said.

"The capex utilisation of the mining monolith received a boost from three of its subsidiaries South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) and Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) who between them accounted for 81 per cent of the capital expenditure, ending June, 20 quarter," it said.

SECL topped the list with Rs 435 crore actual spend, followed by NCL with Rs 149 crore and CCL Rs 102 crore.

The MoU that CIL enters into with government, is a negotiated agreement and contract between the Centre and the management of the central public sector enterprise to evaluate the performance of the CPSE at the end of the year.