The board of Coal India Ltd. (CIL), which met here on Monday, approved a revision in coal prices which involved reduction in prices of certain grades and increase in others.
The decision, which takes effect from May 28, will bring additional revenue of Rs.2,500 crore in a full year, and Rs.2,100 crore for the remaining months of this fiscal.
Higher grades of coal
It has been decided that higher grades of coal — G3 and G4 — with a gross calorific value (GCV) ranging between 6000 and 6300 will see a 12 per cent reduction in prices. This became necessary following lower international coal prices.
To neutralise the loss of revenue on this account, the board approved a 10 per cent increase in prices of a large segment of coal — from G6-to G-17 with a GCV ranging from 2200 to 6000. The two moves taken together translate to a 4.75 per cent aggregate increase in coal prices.
CIL subsidiaries such as Eastern Coalfields Ltd. may see a lower revenue, by about Rs.100 crore per annum, following this adjustment, it is learnt. Coal prices were last increased in February 2011.
Profit up 17 %
Riding on volume growth, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) reported a 17.4 per cent rise in post-tax profit in 2012-13, a year when e-auction income was down mainly due to lower international prices.
Net profit increased by over 30 per cent during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, mainly due to lower operating expenses.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, CIL Chairman and Managing Director S. Narsing Rao said that e-auction sales saw a drop in volume as well as value in 2012-13.
He said that CIL’s post-tax profit for the year stood at Rs.17,356.4 crores on net sales of Rs.68,302.8 crores , which were 9.4 per cent higher than 2012-13. During the year, production increased by 3.8 per cent to Rs.452.2 million metric tonnes but drawing from stocks, the behemoth was able to clock a 7.4 per cent increase in its offtake, which reached 465.2 million metric tonnes.
To a question, Mr. Rao said that supplies to power utilities grew by 10.7 per cent with NTPC plants seeing a 14.6 per cent increase.
Mr. Rao said that interest income (which had boosted CIL’s bottom line substantially in the last few years) was Rs.951 crore higher in 2012-13 at Rs.6,010 crore. He, however, did not see any problem emerging on this front in view of falling rates.
For the fourth quarter, CIL reported a consolidated net profit of Rs.5,413.9 crore against Rs.4,013.4 crore. Consolidated net sales also went up from Rs.19,904 crore to Rs.19,418 crore in the year-ago period.
Total expenses during the period dropped to Rs.14,225 crore from Rs.16,021 crore. Employee benefit expenses during the quarter declined to Rs.7,469 crore from Rs.9,465 crore due to lower provisions on employees benefits which had already been taken care of.
