Coal India Ltd seeks Navratna PSU status

Public sector behemoth Coal India Limited (CIL) had applied to the government for getting Navratna status, its Chairman and Managing Director Partha Bhattacharya said.

He said although the turnover of CIL was in excess of Rs 35,000 crore, the PSU had not been granted that status. Net profit of the company was also in excess of Rs 8200 crore, he added.

In March 2007, the heavy industries ministry had granted the firm the status of a mini-ratna PSU.

The CIL chief admitted that although there was a clause that PSUs getting into the category of a mini-ratna would have to wait for a period of three years for getting the status of a Navratna, the company had sought a waiver on this matter.

He told reporters here last night that the coal ministry was pushing ahead with this, adding that CIL was hopeful that this would be done by the heavy industries ministry, under which all the PSUs function in the country.

Bhattacharya said CIL would hit the capital market only after getting the Navratna status. On the issue of the initial public offering by CIL, Bhattacharya said it would probably happen once independent directors were inducted on the CIL board.

On CIL's plans during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, Bhattacharya said the company would raise the production capacity to 520 million tonnes per annum from 260 million tonnes per annum, at an annualised growth rate of 9.5 per cent.

For this, CIL would invest around Rs 18,000 crore, which would entirely be funded from internal accruals. Being a virtually debt-free company, raising of resources would not be a problem for CIL, he said.