Coal India capex scaled down by 57% for FY12

In a setback to Coal India's (CIL) investment plans for the next fiscal, the government has scaled down the capital expenditure target of the company by almost 57% to Rs 4,220 crore for 2011-12.

According to the Budget papers for 2011-12, initial plan outlay of the company was Rs 9,800 crore for the ongoing fiscal and subsequently, it was revised to Rs 5,418 crore for 2010-11.

"Since we have not been able to acquire properties overseas, we kept the provision quite low," said N C Jha, who today assumed additional charge as Chairman of the company.

For acquiring coal properties abroad, CIL had kept a budget of Rs 6,000 crore in 2010-11 and has been at a striking distance of having a deal with Australian miner Peabody for acquiring some of its properties. However, the announcement has not yet been made.

Besides this, the company had pegged its domestic investment at Rs 3,800 crore during the fiscal, which has subsequently been revised to Rs 3,615 crore, Jha said.

All these investments were to be entirely funded through Internal and Extra-Budgetary Resources (IEBR).

Moreover, the government has earmarked a total of Rs 8,883 crore for investments by three state-run coal and lignite companies -- Coal India, Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and Singareni Collieries Company -- in the next fiscal, the Budget documents said.

For Neyveli Lignite, the government has scaled down the capex by 6% for 2011-12 at Rs 1,859 crore. Of this, the company will spend about Rs 1,754 crore for its power projects, while Rs 105 crore would be used for coal and lignite ventures.

Similarly, the Singareni Collieries Company is expected to make Rs 2,804 crore worth of investments in the next fiscal.

According to the revised estimates for 2010-11, the three coal sector PSUs together would be spending about Rs 7,988 crore during the current fiscal vis-a-vis an initial target of Rs 13,000 crore, the Budget documents said.