Consultancy firm Deloitte is likely to take more time to submit its final report on restructuring of state-owned coal behemoth CIL as the draft has to be seen by the new government led by Narendra Modi.
The delay on the final report comes amidst speculation that various units of Coal India could be converted into independent companies. It is also speculated that states could be made equity holders in the new independent companies in order to boost production.
"Deloitte has already submitted the draft report to the Coal Ministry. It will take more time to finalise the final report after necessary changes. The process will take some time as the draft has to be viewed by the officials of the new government," a Coal Ministry official said.
The consultancy firm was to submit the final report by March-end this year.
The Planning Commission and other high-level panels such as the Expert Committee on Road Map for Coal Sector Reforms, had also recommended restructuring Coal India Ltd (CIL) in view of the rapidly increasing demand for the dry fuel and the need to enhance production and to make the sector competitive.
CIL is the single largest coal producer in the world. It accounts for 81 per cent of the domestic production. The company, which has a manpower of about 3.5 lakh, operates 81 mining areas and has seven wholly-owned coal producing subsidiaries and one mine planning and consultancy company.
The PSU has, however, drawn flak for missing production targets year after year. The output in the last fiscal was 462 million tonnes against the target of 482 million tonnes.
The demand-supply gap of coal in the country is likely to widen to 185.5 MT in 2016-17.
In 2012, the Coal Ministry had issued a Presidential directive for the first time to CIL to sign fuel supply agreements with the power producers assuring them of at least 80 per cent of the committed coal delivery.
Battling low production, CIL has earmarked Rs 24,500 crore capital expenditure over the next few years mainly to boost capacity.
The company reported standalone net profit at Rs 9,794.32 crore for 2012-13.
CIL shares today settled at Rs 372.15 apiece, a gain of 1.49 per cent from its previous close.
