Coal India today reported a near 8 per cent growth in profit after tax (PAT) in the first quarter of this fiscal over the same period last year. The higher profits came on the back of higher interest earnings against fixed deposits worth over Rs 55,000 crore.
Despite recording 14 per cent growth in net sales, the operating profit dropped by 2.41 per cent.
This was the result of an additional Rs 1,200 outgo on the wage bill during the quarter, following implementation of the five-year wage agreement with effect from July 2011.
According to company chairman Narsing Rao, CIL earned an additional Rs 1,654 crore on account of higher offtake (Rs 838 crore), e-auction (Rs 412 crore) and interest income from fixed deposits (Rs 404 crore). While tax provisions remained more or less flat, net of the wage impact the company reported only Rs 325-crore rise in PAT.
Having reported nearly 6.4 per cent growth in both production and offtake during the April-June quarter; the company witnessed a slide in production growth rate to two per cent in July, following heavy rains especially in Orissa.
“From April to August 12, our production is up by 5.4 per cent and offtake grew by 4.5 per cent,” Rao said. “We stick to our plan of posting 7.5 per cent production growth during the fiscal,” he added.
The Chairman said till date CIL had supplied 91.4 per cent of the aggregate contracted quantities to the power sector. “This is higher than the supplies guaranteed by us,” he said, adding that CIL singly should not be held responsible for the country’s power woes.