Country's largest manganese ore producer MOIL Ltd was today formally rescheduled to schedule A category of public sector units from its current status of schedule B category.
Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma handed over the formal order for MOIL's upgradation to its Chairman Managing Director G P Kundargi, an official statement said.
The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) upgrades PSUs on the basis of the quantitative and qualitative factors like investment, net sales, profit and their national importance among others.
"The Minister of Steel appreciated the performance of the company and exhorted the collective to continue to achieve higher goals of excellence and productivity," the statement said.
MOIL was formed in 1962 and was last upgraded to Schedule B category in 2002. It has been a profit-making company over the last two decades. MOIL operates 10 major mines in Central India.
The annual production of MOIL currently stands at about 1.2 million tonne (MT) and the company aims to ramp it up to 2.2 MT by 2020-21.
"The company is also scouting for acquisition of mining assets abroad and has earmarked a sum of Rs 500 crore for the purpose," the statement said.
MOIL was upgraded to a schedule A company by DPE on January 28.
