Coal India (CIL), the world's largest coal producer, on Monday announced a net profit of Rs 2,626 crore for the third quarter this financial year, and said its production could be impacted due to restrictions on
mining in some areas.
CIL said the net sales for the quarter were recorded at Rs 12,691 crore.
The company did not provide comparative figures saying it was not listed then. However, Chairman
Partha S Bhattacharya said he was hopeful the company was expecting to surpass
last year 's net profit of Rs 9,622 crore.
CIL, which hit the capital market with 10 per cent share sale last year in the country's largest-ever IPO - mopping over Rs 15,000 crore - recorded a marginal increase in production during the the October-December quarter at 113.85 million tonnes (Mt).
It had reported a production of 111.08 million tonnes during the corresponding period in 2009-10.
Bhattacharya, addressing the media after announcing the results, said the company was facing issues relating to the production due to environmental concerns.
He said due to restrictions under the Critically Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI), production at nine coalfields could not be expanded due to the ban which got extended from October 31 to March 31.
Bhattacharya said incremental coal production would be affected due to the ban and the company was expecting to reach a production figure of around 440 million tonnes by the end of March.
The production target for the current year was fixed at about 460 Mt. The Planning Commission has scaled down the production target from 520 Mt to 486 Mt, and later to about 460 Mt.
A number of CIL blocks fall under the 203 blocks categorised as "no go" mining areas by Environment Ministry, affecting 660 Mt coal production per annum.
The government has already constituted a 12-member ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to for early resolution of the issues hurting coal production.
Bhattacharya said the issues of 'no go' and 'go' areas as flagged by the environment ministry were likely to be resolved following the meeting with coal ministry scheduled on February 21 and Group of Ministers meeting on February 17.
"We are sure a lot of cases will be cleared and quite a few proposals of the coal ministry will be taken up," he said.
Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production.
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