Coal India forms sub-panel to monitor foreign investment deals

The firm has proposed an ad-hoc provision of Rs 35,000 cr for acquisition and development of mines abroad by 2017

The government today said state-owned Coal India (CIL) has formed a sub-committee to monitor the proposals with regard to foreign investments.     

"The board of directors of Coal India (CIL) has constituted a sub-committee of its board known as Foreign Acquisition Committee, which monitors the foreign investment proposals," Minister of State for Coal Pratik Prakashbapu Patil said in written reply to Rajya Sabha.

CIL had last month invited merchant bankers to assist it in its venture of investing in prospective coal business opportunities overseas.

Earlier, a Parliamentary Panel had pulled up the Maharatna PSU for making no headway in acquisition of coal resources abroad.

The government had earlier said that CIL has proposed an ad-hoc provision of Rs 35,000 crore for acquisition and development of mines abroad by 2017.

"Of the proposed amount, Rs 25,000 crore has been kept for acquisition and development of coal blocks in other countries like South Africa, Indonesia, Australia, USA, Columbia", according to an official statement.

The remaining Rs 10,000 crore has been allocated for exploration and development of two allotted coal blocks in Mozambique during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) besides creating logistic infrastructure there, it added.

The Standing Committee on Coal and Steel in its report tabled in the Parliament had observed that for the development and acquisition of coal resources aboard, Rs 4,000 crore is reported to have been kept as an ad-hoc provision during 2013-14.

The Committee had expressed concern that against the ad-hoc provision of Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 5,000 crore during FY'12 and FY'13, respectively, CIL did not make any headway in acquiring coal mines overseas and that no amount was utilised for the purpose during fiscal 2011-12.