State-run coal major SCCL has been granted powers at par with miniratna firms like MMTC, RINL and NHPC, enabling the company to take decisions on investments up to Rs 500 crore.
"SCCL has been granted powers of a miniratna entity. The company's board will now have full autonomy over investment decisions up to Rs 500 crore," a top coal ministry official told PTI.
The proposal was sent to the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs in July which cleared it recently, he said.
The procedural bottlenecks in taking ministry's approval for investments beyond Rs 100 crore was hurting the company's growth plans, the official said, adding that ultimately it was decided to give it more autonomy.
Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), a 51:49 joint undertaking of Andhra Pradesh government and the Centre, has an estimated coal reserves of 9.3 billion tonnes.
The company cannot be granted the status of a miniratna PSU as it is a joint venture between the state and the central governments, the official said.
"It is not a PSU of the central government, so it could not be granted the miniratna status. Thus it was proposed to grant powers at par with the miniratna PSUs," he added.
SCCL produced 44.44 million tonnes of coal in the last fiscal and has set a production target of 50.4 million tonnes for the current financial year.
