The government does not intend to privatise state-owned Coal India Ltd., Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Monday.
The statement comes in the wake of the government opening up coal mining for the private sector and stating that commercial mining will be done on revenue sharing mechanism instead of fixed rupee/tonne.
"The Government of India does not intend to privatise Coal India Ltd. Instead, the government is strengthening it and will continue to do so," Joshi said.
The government, he said, has announced an investment of Rs 50,000 crores under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to create and develop infrastructure facilities for Coal India. It will help the miner achieve one-billion-tonne production target by 2023-24, the minister said.
Coal India accounts for over 80 percent of domestic coal output.
"It's also an opportunity for Coal India to open up new mines and increase coal production to reduce country's coal imports saving valuable forex," Joshi said. Coal India substitute 100 million tonnes of coal import annually in near future, he added.
On Monday, Coal India shares fell 5.98 percent to Rs 121.75 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange while the benchmark Sensex shed 3.44 percent to end the day at 30,028.98 points.
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