CoS to discuss performance-linked pay for CIL loss-making arms

The is likely to take up next week a proposal to implement performance-related pay in Coal India's loss-making units.

 

"The Committee of Secretaries (CoS) is scheduled to meet on July 19 to deliberate on the Coal Ministry's proposal for providing performance-related pay from consolidated funds to executives of Coal India (CIL) subsidiaries," a source said.

 

"After getting approval from the CoS, which is examining the matter, it will go to the Cabinet," he added.

 

If the proposal is accepted, the world's largest coal miner would have to shell out about Rs 200 crore on account of performance-related pay to its loss-making units. CIL has already incurred an additional Rs 6,500 crore burden on account of a recent pay revision.

 

The Coal Ministry has sought permission to allow Coal India to determine the amount of performance-related pay due since 2007 based on the profit before tax of its consolidated accounts and not from the individual accounts of its loss-making subsidiaries as required by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).

 

Coal India's consolidated profit before tax in the year ended March 2013 was Rs 24,979.04 crore, a 17.42% increase from a year earlier, according to a statement on the company's website.

 

The Coal Ministry had said in its proposal that CIL is the holding company that appointed executives and controlled the cadre, transferring functionaries from one arm to another on promotion.

 

Last month, a CoS meeting on the issue remained inconclusive as the panel had sought more information on why the Ministry had made the proposal.

The plan to provide performance-related pay to executives of loss-making CIL subsidiaries, including Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), also met with opposition from the Department of Expenditure and the DPE.

 

CIL accounts for over 80% of domestic coal production. Its subsidiaries include: ECL (West Bengal), Bharat Coking Coal (Jharkhand), Central Coalfields (Jharkhand), South Eastern Coalfields (Chhattisgarh), Western Coalfields (Maharashtra), Northern Coalfields (Madhya Pradesh), Mahanadi Coalfields (Orissa) and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (Ranchi).