State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) today invited bids for developing 18 abandoned mines spread across its three subsidiaries and hoped to receive good response from global majors.
"Expression of interest has been invited for the development of 18 mines having an estimated reserve of over 800 million tonnes. The mines were located in Bharat Coking Coal, Eastern Coalfields and Central Coalfields," Coal India Chairman Partha Sarathi Bhattacharyya told reporters here.
Bhattachayya said CIL hopes to get good response for the mines, that include both coking and non-coking coal reserve from global majors.
On the company's financial performance, he said CIL during 2007-08 had posted pre-tax profit of Rs 8,738.46 crore, after taking into account provision for wage agreement which was Rs 1,561 crore.
Last year's profit before tax stood at Rs 8,622.
CIL had earned a gross revenue of Rs 38,617 crore during 2007-08, against Rs 35,005 crore in the previous year.
He said profit level had gone up due to increase in production and cost cutting through outsourcing in overburden removal.
CIL's net profit, however, has gone down to Rs 5,243.27 crore during 2007-08 from Rs 5,708.72 crore.
The company, which had increased price by 10 per cent after four years, said the step was not adequate to neutralise inflationary impact.
Besides, CIL also had to pay more tax which led to a dip in the company's next profit.
