New Delhi: State-owned Coal India Ltd is
moblising a Rs 1,600 crore funding for two of its ailing firms
-- BCCL and EC -- to take them out of the Board for Industrial
& Financial Reconstruction's purview in the next two years.
Both the subsidiaries of the coal giant were referred to
BIFR about a decade back and are struggling to come out of it.
"CIL is making efforts to take them out of BIFR and is
hopeful of securing a medium-term loan of about Rs 1,600-crore
for the companies, including Rs 1,000-crore for Bharat Coking
Coal Ltd (BCCL)," Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya told PTI.
Both the coal firms were loss-making and eventually were
referred to the BIFR. But continued efforts by CIL has turned
Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) and BCCL into profit-making
entities recently, Bhattacharyya said.
"We are hopeful that both BCCL and ECL would come out of
BIFR's purview in two years and are making efforts in that
direction. Apart from securing funding, write-offs are to be
done. Besides, there are many legal and other issues to be
resolved," he said.
The pre-budget economic survey in July had mooted for
listing of the two sick subsidiaries of the coal major by
divesting 49 per cent government stake in the companies and
transferring management control to a private firm.
The suggestion to revive the two firms comes at a time
when the government is considering divesting up to 10 per cent
of its stake in CIL, paving way for its early listing in the
bourses.
ECL which operates 110 mines mostly in West Bengal and
Jharkhand, has an estimated reserve of 40 billion tonnes. It
aims to produce 31 million tonnes of coal in this fiscal-- up
three mllion tonnes from the last fiscal.
While Jharkhand-based BCCL with 78 mines has an annual
production capacity of about 20 million tonnes. It aims to
increase its output manifold.
BCCL was referred to the BIFR for the first time in
1994-95 when the company reported a negative net worth of Rs
171 crore and its accumulated losses stood at Rs 1,293 crore.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 15:33