Coal India fit for coveted Maharatna tag

The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has found that Coal India (CIL) meets the criteria for the Maharatna status, which will provide the state-run company with more autonomy, a government official said today.

"DPE said that the case is fit for Maharatna because the turnover of the company is more than Rs 52,000 crore, the net worth is Rs 25,000 crore and average profit is about Rs 6,000 crore and it has an international presence," the official, who attended an inter-ministerial meeting to decide on conferring Maharatna tag on CIL, told PTI.

The meeting, presided over by DPE Secretary Bhaskar Chatterjee today, was attended by Coal Secretary C Balakrishnan and CIL Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya, among others.

"CIL made its presentation to DPE for obtaining Maharatna status. Now they will consider it," the official said.

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 Maharatna tag.

At present, there are four PSUs with Maharatna status -- Oil and Natural Gas Corp, National Thermal Power Corp, Indian Oil Corp and Steel Authority of India.

The DPE Secretary last week had said that the Coal Ministry had forwarded the proposal to the Department, under the Heavy Industries Ministry, for the grant of Maharatna status on the coal miner.

CIL fulfils all the necessary parameters to qualify for the status and the DPE hopes to finish awarding the status and issuing the formal order before February-end, he had said.

A company 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 the Maharatna status.

CIL made its listing debut on the bourses in November last year after its spectacular 10 per cent share sale, which mopped up Rs 15,200 crore, which is the country's largest IPO till date. It 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.

The government had decided in December, 2009, to give more operational freedom to the top-performing PSUs through the Maharatna scheme. At present, 16 state-owned firms, including CIL, enjoy Navratna status.