The former Coal Secretary Sh Alok Perti has advised several measures to improve the coal supply situation of the country.
According to him, the Coal India should put more emphasize on raising coal production rather tan on increasing profits.
As said by him,
"In a monopolistic situation, is profit for a government firm only objective? I think it can not be so. Unfortunately, for the last few months, it is giving that kind of projection only. It needs to change."
CIL accounts for about 80 per cent of the country's coal production. The output remained stagnant for the last two years which is often attributed to lack of forest and environment clearances.
Last year, its production was 431 million tonnes.
He also criticized the laid back approach of Coal India management, saying that the initial public offering of the company in 2010 was supposed to bring in a change in the attitude of the management, but that did not happen.
"We at one stage, when we brought the IPO of CIL got the feeling that this is going to usher in a better management and we thought that for quarterly reports, etc, the Board would be more professionalised. What we find there is not exactly so and that is where I think that Coal India needs to modify for change," Perti said.
Government had in April issued a Presidential directive to CIL for signing fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with power producers assuring them of at least 80 per cent of the committed coal delivery.
However, that did not gel well with UK-based hedge firm TCI, which is the biggest foreign investor in Coal India and has a minority stake in it. It accused CIL of not protecting minority shareholders' interest and harming the company by not opposing to such fuel supply pacts.
"TCI has a point. But, CIL should focus that good value comes through production and not by increasing prices," Perti said, adding CIL has rooms for lowering its production cost.
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