Government is in the process of hiring an external consultant to advise on the restructuring of Coal India (CIL) for a long term sustainability roadmap. The government is learnt to have shortlisted nine consultants for the purpose.
Meanwhile, agency reports quoted Coal Minister Prakash Jaiswal as saying that he was not in favour of splitting the state-run CIL. The minister has reportedly said the advisor would be engaged in a month or two and would be given six months to submit the report.
The minister clarified that the restructuring study exercise does not mean splitting CIL into smaller companies and nowhere in the mandate has this been mentioned.
Several experts recommended restructuring of CIL’s subsidiaries to improve efficiency and increase production of coal. Even the TL Shankar committee recommended this.
The monopoly coal miner CIL has eight subsidiaries – Bharat Coking Coal, Central Coalfields, Eastern Coalfields, South Eastern Coalfields, Western Coalfields, Northern Coalfields, Mahanadi Coalfields and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute.
The proposal for spinning off CIL subsidiaries into separate entities was made by the Planning Commission so that each one of them can pursue its own goals, amid growing supply deficit of coal.
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