State-owned Coal India on Tuesday said its capital expenditure was at ₹5,023 crore in the first six months of 2020-21 financial year.
The capex utilisation in April-September was at an all-time high of 118% in the first half of any fiscal, the PSU said in a statement.
“Coal India’s (CIL) capital expenditure at ₹5,023 crore ending first half of the ongoing fiscal capped an all-time high of 118 per cent utilisation against the provisioned target of ₹4,247 crore,” the PSU said in a statement.
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“This is a historic high in capex utilisation as CIL has not exceeded 30 per cent target utilisation in the first half of a fiscal so far. The previous three year average of H1 capex utilisation has been around 20 per cent,” a senior official of the company said.
CIL during April-September clocked a robust capex growth of 242% compared to ₹1,467 crore in April-September period of previous fiscal.
“Actual capex ending Q2 of the current fiscal at ₹4,179 crore was up by ₹3,165 crore compared to ₹ 1,014 crore in the same quarter last year logging a whopping 312% growth,” the PSU said.
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In the second quarter as well, CIL achieved 118% utilisation breaching the provisioned target of ₹3,527 crore.
The government had recently asked CPSEs, including CIL, to speed up their capital expenditure to boost growth especially by the end of the second quarter of 2020-21.
CIL’s capex spend during the first half of the ongoing fiscal was a little over half of the planned expenditure of ₹10,000 crore for the full fiscal.
Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi has been closely monitoring the progress of processes like land acquisition, setting up of rail logistics and associated infrastructure and mine development of especially mega mine projects and speeding them up.
Payments were made for acquisition of land post COVID unlock. Major high value tenders could be concluded on time and heavy earth moving equipment (HEMM) was procured. CIL’s robust capex spending came on the back of these issues.
Among the major heads, purchase of HEMM at ₹1,360 crore accounted for 27% of the total capex of the first half. It was followed by payments for acquisition for mining operations which made up close to 26% of the capex where CIL spent ₹1,289 crore. Setting up important rail lines and developing sidings constituted around 21% of the H1 capex.
CIL spent ₹1,078 crore under this head. These three heads combined at ₹3,726 crore made up for around 74% of the first half’s entire capex. The components for the rest 26% or ₹1,297 crore include mine development, coal handling plants, silos, roads, exploration and prospecting, other plant and machinery and joint venture investments.
“Land acquisition on fast track mode with the support of Ministry of Coal and modernisation of equipment and deployment of it in OC mines will pave way for ramping up our production, productivity. Concurrent development of rail and other logistics will boost evacuation facilities to transport increased output,” the official said.
Coal India accounts for over 80% of domestic coal output.