ICVL rejig proposal under consideration: Coal Ministry

The Coal Ministry today said the proposal to restructure ICVL is under consideration, even as Coal India has been asked to reconsider its decision of quiting the consortium of five PSUs.

"While ICVL is focused towards acquisition of metallurgical coking coal assets, it is open to acquisition of thermal coal assets as well, depending upon the interest/ desires of its promoter companies. Proposal for restructuring of ICVL is under consideration," Minister of State for Coal Prakashbapu Patil said in the Lok Sabha.

International Coal Ventures Ltd (ICVL) is a venture of five state-run companies - Coal India, Steel Authority of India, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, NMDC and NTPC with the mandate of securing overseas coal assets.

It aimed to own 500 million tonne of coal reserves by 2019-2020.

SAIL and Coal India hold 28% stake each and RINL, NMDC and NTPC have 14% each in ICVL.

The rejig is warranted following NTPC's decision to quit the venture as ICVL's focus was more on securing coking coal to meet the needs of steel makers, than on thermal coal for generating power.

The board of CIL in May also said the state-owned coal producer should quit ICVL, as it was not advantageous for it to be a part of the consortium because it only involved financial burden without commensurate advantage.

CIL communicated this to the Coal Ministry.

"The proposal of CIL to opt out of ICVL has been received in the Ministry of Coal as ICVL is primarily focused to secure metallurgical coal assets and the interest of CIL for sourcing thermal coal would be marginal through its participation in ICVL," Patil said.

However, he added, "CIL has been requested to reconsider its decision since CIL was not able to acquire assets on its own. The response of CIL is awaited".

ICVL has failed to make a mark since its inception in 2009.

On a couple of occasions, it had to retreat from plans to acquire an asset after discords crept in and consensus took longer than expected.