Govt clears appointment of independent directors in CIL

NEW DELHI: Coal Ministry has approved the appointment of 40 independent directors on the boards of Coal India Ltd and its seven subsidiaries as parts of steps to be taken for listing all the companies on the bourses.

"Divestment of CIL will be considered after the Shankar Committee on restructuring of CIL is received. We believe that the Committee would submit its recommendations soon," CIL Chairman P S Bhattacharya told reporters here.

The CIL Board has five functional directors, two nominees from Coal Ministry and one from the Railways, he said.

The ministry has cleared the names of 40 independent directors for CIL and its subsidiaries, he added.

The move comes days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said more PSUs should be listed to raise resources.

Earlier, the CIL chief paid an interim dividend of Rs 800 crore to the government for 2006-07. The company is likely to pay another dividend of Rs 700 crores later this month, taking the total contribution to Rs 1,500 crores for this fiscal.

"We are in the process of making CIL a vibrant organisation and are gearing up our machinery to meet the domestic needs of the country," Bhattacharya said.

He said the dividend paid today was 23.75 per cent of the paid up equity capital of the government.

Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao said the government has approved mini-ratna status for CIL, Western Coalfields Ltd, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, South-eastern Coalfields Ltd and Northern Coalfields Ltd.

Rao said CIL has been doing well during the last three fiscals and ensured turnaround of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd and Eastern Coalfields Ltd. He said the ministry has sought the Prime Minister's nod for underground coal gasification and coal liquefaction projects. By September, coal blocks would be allotted for these projects, he said.

Rao said so far 130 blocks have been allocated to public and private sector companies to increase coal production to meet the growing demand while allocation of another 100 blocks was under progress.

He said emergency coal production plan from the existing mines envisages an additional coal production of 71 million tonnes, of which about 18 MT would be produced this year.