Government mulls listing of Coal India's profit-making arms

The government is examining a proposal to list profit-making subsidiaries of state-owned Coal India Ltd in a bid to raise funds, sources privy to the development said.

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is examining the proposal to "list the profit-making arms of Coal India (CIL) on stock exchange", according to sources.

Talks on the same are at the initial stage, a source said. A query sent to the company regarding the proposal did not elicit any response.

Niti Aayog had earlier suggested spinning off Coal India's subsidiaries into separate entities so that each can develop its strategy and business model.

Coal India Limited (CIL) accounts for over 80% of domestic coal output. It has seven wholly-owned coal producing subsidiaries and one mine planning and consultancy company.

Coal India has seven arms: Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL), South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL).

"The implementation of the proposal to spin-off the subsidiaries of CIL as separate public sector entities must also be implemented so that they may independently develop their own strategies and business models," Niti Aayog had said.

The government think-tank has also suggested using a market mechanism to open the coal mining sector for commercial mining.