CIL may get Maharatna status by month-end

The government today said it will award the Maharatna status to the world's biggest coal producer Coal India (CIL) before this month-end, a tag which will give more financial autonomy to the state-run firm.

Department of Public Enterprises Secretary Bhaskar Chatterjee said CIL will get the Maharatna status as early as "by the end of this month".

"We have finished all the proceedings at our level. We are now sending the file to the Cabinet Secretary and I hope that in the next 2-3 days, we will have the clearance from the Cabinet Secretary," Chatterjee told PTI here.

He said clearance from Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar was awaited. Currently, CIL is one of the 16 Navratna PSUs.

Efforts are on to award CIL the highest status before its present Chairman and Managing Director Partha Bhattacharya retires later this month, Chatterjee added.

CIL, the world's largest coal-miner with a turnover of Rs 52,000 crore in 2009-10, will be the fifth PSU to qualify for the categorisation, which entitles a state-owned firm to more financial freedom.

At present, there are four PSUs with Maharatna status -- ONGC, NTPC, IOC and SAIL.

A PSU needs to have a three-year track record of annual net profit of over Rs 5,000 crore, a net worth of more than Rs 15,000 crore and a turnover of more than Rs 25,000 crore -- besides being listed on stock exchanges -- to be eligible for Maharatna status.

CIL has reported a profit of over Rs 5,000 crore for the past three years in a row.

The status would provide the PSU's board financial authority to pursue plans for acquiring mining assets in South Africa, Indonesia, Australia and the US more aggressively.

A Maharatna PSU can invest up to Rs 5,000 crore in a project independently, while the limit for Navratna companies is Rs 1,000 crore.

When asked which other company is in line for a Maharatna tag, Chatterjee said "the promosing one is BHEL. Let's hope that they come up".

When asked whether BHEL has approached formally, he said, "not yet".

They have to formally fulfill the criterion from their audited accounts, Chatterjee said adding, "on the horizon I can only see BHEL at this point".

The government had decided in December, 2009 to give more operational freedom to the top-performing PSUs through the Maharatna scheme.