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New Delhi, April 26
The Coal Ministry has chalked out plans to monetise around ₹51,118.61 crore in the current financial year, ending March 2024, which includes assets of the mining behemoth Coal India (CIL)
According to the Ministry’s action plan for FY24, it aims to monetise CIL assets worth ₹10,118.61 crore, as well as raise another ₹40,000 crore though various initiatives such as allotting coal blocks through commercial mine auctions, appointment of mine developers & operators (MDOs) and coal bed methane (CBM) projects.
The Ministry expects 25 coal blocks to be auctioned under the commercial mine auctions in FY24.
During FY23 (April-February), the Ministry raised a total of ₹24,626.81 crore through monetisation of assets against a target of ₹30,000 crore set by the Niti Aayog. Of this, the Ministry raised more than ₹17,400 crore through coal mine auctions, ₹6,735.82 crore through the MDO route and ₹490 crore from abandoned mines.
Similarly, in FY22, against the NITI Aayog’s target of ₹3,394 crore, the Ministry achieved a monetisation of ₹40,104.64 crore, which includes raising ₹29,000 from coal block auctions, ₹9,592.64 crore from MDOs and ₹1,512 crore from a CBM project.
Capex & production plans
The Ministry also said that it will cumulatively incur a capex of ₹21,030 crore in FY24, of which the majority will be with CIL.
The country’s largest coal miner, accounting for around 80 per cent of the coal mined in India, will incur a capex of ₹16,500 crore. Lignite miner NLC India (NLCIL) will spend ₹2,880 crore as capital expenditure, while the Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) has earmarked a capex of ₹1,650 crore for FY24.
For FY24, the Ministry has set a coal production target of 1,012 million tonnes (mt), of which CIL’s share stands at 780 mt, followed by SCCL’s at 70 mt. Captives, commercial and others cumulatively have a target of 162 mt. For NLCIL, the Ministry set an output target of 26.5 mt of lignite.
The Ministry will also set up a coal trading exchange this fiscal, which will offer easy availability of the key commodity. Crisil has been engaged as a consultant for providing strategic and implementation management consulting services for setting up the exchange.
Logistics
Besides, to ramp up the coal logistics sector, the Ministry will finalise the logistics policy as well as the national coal logistics plan in the current financial year.
This also includes 71 first mile connectivity (FMC) projects, and a total of 35 critical rail projects, including for faster evacuation of coal from major coal bearing states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
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