Coal companies go slow on spending, 52% of targeted expenditure met

The expenditures of three state-run coal companies - Coal India Ltd (CIL), Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), and NLC Ltd (formerly Neyveli Lignite Corporation) - have fallen short of their targets by 48 per cent till May this year.

At the end of May, the combined target for spending was Rs 1,757.91 crore, of which only Rs 917.69 crore has been spent by the three coal companies.

The data given by the ministry of coal show that the plan outlay for CIL, SCCL, and NLC for this fiscal year has been pegged at Rs 19,048.12 crore. NLC has the biggest outlay, which is Rs 8,948.12 crore, followed by CIL (Rs 8,500 crore) and SCCL (Rs 1,600 crore).

On coal production, both CIL and SCCL fell short of their assigned targets in the April-May period. CIL produced 79.2 million tonnes (mt) by the end of May against its target of 91.7 mt. SCCL fared better though its production at 9.5 mt in the same period was less than the targeted 10.5 mt.

Coal despatches by both CIL and SCCL showed improvement over the previous fiscal year. CIL's coal despatch in April-May stood at 91.7 mt, growing at 4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y).

SCCL's coal despatch moved up 11.1 per cent in the period under review from 9.5 mt to 10.6 mt

Coal supplies by SCCL to the power sector moved up 10.8 per cent y-o-y whereas CIL witnessed a reduction of 1.7 per cent. 

At the end of May, the power sector's dues to CIL were Rs 11,915.74 crore. Of those, the undisputed arrears amount to Rs 10,498.98 crore.

On production parameters, NLC too lagged its performance targets. In May, it managed to notch up lignite production of 8.81 mt only compared to its target of 11.55 mt. Power generation at 1,689.36 million units (MU) was also 17.65 per cent short of the mandated 2,051.50 MU in May.