Coal India Ltd (CIL) has asked the government to scale down its production target for the 2011-12 financial year to 448 million tonnes (MT) from 452 MT at present, fearing it will not be able to make up for slippage in output in the first half of the fiscal.
The state-run company missed its April-September target by about 20 MT, recording an output of 176 MT against the target of 196 MT, which it has blamed on inclement weather, including heavy rains in August-September that affected production in almost all its collieries.
"We have requested Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal to bring it (target for the current fiscal) down to 448 MT... As it was discovered that it would not be possible for Coal India to produce 452 MT," a top company official told PTI.
During the course of an assessment of production this month, it emerged that it was very difficult to make up for losses of 20 MT that occurred in the first half of the fiscal during the remaining months of the year, the official said.
Meanwhile, the five Coal India Ltd trade unions that met with Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal yesterday had assured him of their best efforts to meet the company's annual production target after their employee bonuses were revised upward to Rs 20,000 per worker instead of the earlier announced Rs 17,000.
"We will try to meet the target of 452 million tonnes," INTUC Secretary General S Q Zama said.
The Planning Commission had last month asked the Coal Ministry to chalk out an action plan to ensure that CIL meets its production target for the current financial year.
CIL, which accounts for 80% of domestic coal production in the country, had missed its production target last fiscal, recording an output of 431 MT against the revised target of 440 MT.
