Coal India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Coal, for its key performance areas for the fiscal 2011-12. C Balakrishnan, Secretary Ministry of Coal and NC Jha, chariman, CIL, signed the document in Delhi.

As per the MoU for the fiscal 2011-12, CIL’s targeted production and coal off-take have been fixed at 452.00 Million Tonnes (MTs) and 454.00 MTs respectively for attaining an ‘excellent’ rating. Incidentally for previous three fiscal years i.e 2007-08, 2008-09 & 2009-10 CIL was rated ‘excellent’.

Under the present MoU for 2011-12 special emphasis on Research & Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable development & Corporate Governance have been made as major thrust areas. To attain the targeted off-take, CIL has sought 175 rakes/day for 2011-12 as against the average availability of 156.8 rakes/day and 161.9 rakes/day during previous and current fiscal years. Average growth of coal movement through Rail is only around 2% during the last 3 years whereas CIL has envisaged a growth of around 13.5% through rail for achieving above target.

Since last year ( 2010-11) expenditure on CIL R&D activities has taken a quantum jump from 2009-10 level of around Rs. 15 crores annually to Rs. 30 crores. CIL has also stepped up its target for expenditure on CSR activities in line with DPE’s guideline.

The component of performance obligation mainly consists of Financial & non financial parameters which carry equal weight of 50% each. The key parameters are gross margin, gross sales, financial ratios, quality of coal, coal production, off-take & productivity, customer satisfaction, HRD (training policy etc), safety (fatality/Mt) and environmental management etc.

The MoU formulated on the guidelines laid down by Department of Public Enterprises is a negotiated agreement and contract between Government and the Management of Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) to evaluate the performance of the CPSE at the end of the year vis- a-vis the targets fixed in the beginning of the year.