Coal India Ltd, which had estimated a capital expenditure of Rs 60,000 crore to ramp up production to 908 million tonnes, may have to revise it in view of the proposed Land Acquisition Bill. “The current estimate of total capex is Rs 60,000 crore over the next five years. But it may get revised due to Land Acquisition Bill,” Coal India chairman Sutirtha Bhattacharya said at the CIL AGM here on Wednesday.
“There are some issues with regard to land acquisition. The final <g data-gr-id="59">capex</g> amount will eventually depend on the amount of land acquired,” he said. A large portion of the money would go towards <g data-gr-id="57">acquisition</g> of land required for mining of coal and the rest for buying machinery and equipment for the same, he said.
CIL requires 20,000 acres in next five years to achieve its target of 908 million tonnes. The cost of land acquisition would depend on the proposed Land Bill which seeks higher compensation.
Meanwhile, the miner is in talks for acquiring mining assets overseas. “We are pursuing diplomatic channels while pursuing these assets. We are in talks with various countries for buying mining assets,” Bhattacharya said. Coal India is planning to raise coal production from underground mining to 100 million tonnes in the next 10 years, CIL Director (Technical) N Kumar said.
“We are looking at ways to increase underground mining production. Currently, nearly 93 per cent of Coal India’s total production comes from open cast mines,” Kumar said. “The plan is to raise it to 100 million tonnes in the next 10 years. Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd has been asked to prepare a roadmap for the same,” he said.
The miner had been able to sell 24.8 million tonnes through e-auction route during the April-August period as against 18.2 million tonnes in the same period a year ago, CIL Director (Marketing) B K Saxena said. Meanwhile, informing the shareholders, the company said dues from NTPC had come down from Rs 900 crore as on March 31, 2015 to Rs 600 crore in August.
The meet was held in the absence of independent directors. CIL is without any independent director since the last AGM in September 2014.
An Exchange official said that as per SEBI listing agreement, a company should fill a vacancy in three months or by the next board meeting. CIL board has a strength of 14 members of which seven posts are for independent directors.
The posts of <g data-gr-id="45">independent</g> director in subsidiaries are also lying vacant.
Company’s secretary M Viswanathan told PTI that BSE and NSE had sought clarification from CIL regarding the vacant posts and the company has replied.
CIL chairman Sutirtha Bhattacharya said independent directors had to be appointed by the government and not by the company.
“We are constantly pursuing the appointment of independent directors,” he said.
The NDA government at the Centre had not supported the reappointment of few independent directors who offered to continue at the last AGM and the rest resigned before the shareholders’ meeting apprehending government stance on not supporting their appointments.
On Day one itself, NTPC’s tax-free bonds issue subscribed 11 times
State-run NTPC’s Rs 700-crore public issue of tax-free bonds was oversubscribed by 11.04 times on the first day of opening. “By the end of Day 1 ie by 5.00 PM the issue was oversubscribed by 11.04 times <g data-gr-id="144">of </g>the base issue size of Rs 400 crore and 6.31 times of the overall issue size of Rs 700 crore,” the company said in a statement.
The retail portion was oversubscribed by 6.60 times (of the total issue size allocated to retail), reflecting a huge confidence of retail investors in the company, it said. A total demand of over Rs 4,400 crore was generated against the issue size of Rs 700 crore. NTPC’s issue was the first tax-free bond issuance in this fiscal, it said.
Earlier in July, the government had approved the plan to raise Rs 1,000 crore through tax-free bonds, including Rs 700 crore through public issue. NTPC was among seven state-run entities, including NHAI and IRFC, which were given permission to raise Rs 40,000 crore in the current fiscal through tax-free bonds. “The 40 per cent of the issue i.e Rs 280 crore is reserved for allocation to <g data-gr-id="123">retail</g> category. The remaining issue will be for non-retail investors including QIB, corporates and High Networth Indians,” NTPC Director (Finance) K Biswal had earlier said.
The issues <g data-gr-id="121">has</g> three tenures -- 10 years, 15 years and 20 years. For retail investors the coupon rate is 7.36 per cent for 10 years tenure, 7.53 per cent for 15 years and 7.62 per cent for 20 years.