The pre-budget economic survey on Thursday mooted for listing of Coal India's two sick subsidiaries — Eastern Coalfields Ltd and Bharat Coking Coal Ltd — by divesting 49 per cent government stake in the companies.
It also prescribed that transfer of management control of the two firms to a private party may be done partially through auction of 26 per cent of the government's shareholding.
"The two sick subsidiaries of CIL, namely ECL and BCCL should be listed, 49 per cent of shares sold to public and management control transferred to a private party (perhaps through an auction of 26 per cent of shares plus management control package)," the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament said.
The suggestion to revive the two firms by such measures comes at a time when the government is considering divesting up to 10 per cent of its stake in the country's largest coal producer, Coal India Ltd, paving way for its early listing.
Eastern Coalfields, which operates 110 mines mostly in West Begal and Jharkhand, has an estimated reserve of 40 billion tonnes. It aims to produce 31 million tonnes of coal in this fiscal from 28 in the last fiscal.
While BCCL with 78 mines has an annual production capacity of about 20 million tonnes, it aims to grow its output manifold and has already announced multi-billion dollar programmes to procure mining equipment.
Source: The Hindu
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