Public sector miner Coal India Ltd, which is under pressure to increase output to meet domestic demand, has 102 proposals pending at different levels for environmental clearance.
This issue will figure in detail at a Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting scheduled to take place in Nagpur. If these proposals are cleared, Coal India is expected to mine an additional 105.65 million tonnes in 2012-13. This can go up to 152.82 mt by 2016-17.
“Out of these projects, 25 are seeking final clearance, after which mining can immediately commence,” a Government official told a business daily.
The backlog of environmental and forest approvals has become one of the major hurdles to Coal India’s mining more fuel.
Coal Ministry officials have raised these concerns with the Prime Minister and at the Group of Ministers (GoM) meet on May 30.
The last GoM, headed by former Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had suggested that, for faster clearances, the Ministry of Environment and Forests should constitute more advisory committees to clear the backlog.
The GoM also discussed the relaxation of norms for exploration activities in coal fields. According to the Chaturvedi Committee, a miner may be allowed to bore holes with a density of 15-20 per square km, from the current norm of 1.5-2 bore holes per square km. This is essential for ascertaining the level of coal reserves in new projects.
The Environment Ministry is reviewing the reports of three pilot projects taken up to study impact of these relaxations.
The Government has also suggested introduction of ‘e-filing of applications’ for environment and forest clearances. “The Environment Ministry should quick adopt the e-filing mechanism,” said the Government official.
According to the Coal Ministry, online applications are critical in addressing time delays in processing, at both at the State and Central levels. It will facilitate timely approvals.
Already combating a wage burden of Rs 6,500 crore, Coal India may have to shoulder a burden of nearly Rs 200 crore more if the Union Cabinet approves coal ministry’s proposal to revise the Performance Related Pay (PRP) of the company’s employees to be paid from its consolidated accounts.
In a note to the Union Cabinet on June 17, the coal ministry proposed that CIL should be allowed to determine the corpus of PRP which is due since 2007-08 on its Profit Before tax (PBT) based on its consolidated accounts and not from the individual accounts of its seven subsidiaries as required by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).
Justifying the proposal, it cited that a remuneration committee constituted by CIL has recommended that PRP should be paid to all executives of CIL and its subsidiaries based on the performance of the individual company vis-a-vis their MoUs as well as individual performance rating. It also suggested the corpus for PRP should come from CIL’s aggregate PBT. The ministry said CIL is the holding company and appoints all executives and controls the cadre. As per the terms of the employment, the senior functionaries are transferable from one subsidiary to another compulsorily on promotion.
“So unequal PRP among executives of various subsidiaries would create human resource problems for us,” it said. The ministry further cited that Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd has been a low-profit churning company as it charges coal companies on cost basis for services rendered to them. Their executives deserve to get PRP on par with the executives of the subsidiary firms. According to the DPE’s model of PRP, endorsed by the Union Cabinet in 2008, any modification in this regard requires its approval, the minister pointed out.
“The DPE too has supported our proposal, but has said the actual payment should be made by individual companies from their own PBT or from the consolidated PBT of holding company’s consolidated accounts. The total financial implication of this proposal for 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 is Rs192.47 crore,” coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said.
This issue will figure in detail at a Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting scheduled to take place in Nagpur. If these proposals are cleared, Coal India is expected to mine an additional 105.65 million tonnes in 2012-13. This can go up to 152.82 mt by 2016-17.
“Out of these projects, 25 are seeking final clearance, after which mining can immediately commence,” a Government official told a business daily.
The backlog of environmental and forest approvals has become one of the major hurdles to Coal India’s mining more fuel.
Coal Ministry officials have raised these concerns with the Prime Minister and at the Group of Ministers (GoM) meet on May 30.
The last GoM, headed by former Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had suggested that, for faster clearances, the Ministry of Environment and Forests should constitute more advisory committees to clear the backlog.
The GoM also discussed the relaxation of norms for exploration activities in coal fields. According to the Chaturvedi Committee, a miner may be allowed to bore holes with a density of 15-20 per square km, from the current norm of 1.5-2 bore holes per square km. This is essential for ascertaining the level of coal reserves in new projects.
The Environment Ministry is reviewing the reports of three pilot projects taken up to study impact of these relaxations.
The Government has also suggested introduction of ‘e-filing of applications’ for environment and forest clearances. “The Environment Ministry should quick adopt the e-filing mechanism,” said the Government official.
According to the Coal Ministry, online applications are critical in addressing time delays in processing, at both at the State and Central levels. It will facilitate timely approvals.
Already combating a wage burden of Rs 6,500 crore, Coal India may have to shoulder a burden of nearly Rs 200 crore more if the Union Cabinet approves coal ministry’s proposal to revise the Performance Related Pay (PRP) of the company’s employees to be paid from its consolidated accounts.
In a note to the Union Cabinet on June 17, the coal ministry proposed that CIL should be allowed to determine the corpus of PRP which is due since 2007-08 on its Profit Before tax (PBT) based on its consolidated accounts and not from the individual accounts of its seven subsidiaries as required by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).
Justifying the proposal, it cited that a remuneration committee constituted by CIL has recommended that PRP should be paid to all executives of CIL and its subsidiaries based on the performance of the individual company vis-a-vis their MoUs as well as individual performance rating. It also suggested the corpus for PRP should come from CIL’s aggregate PBT. The ministry said CIL is the holding company and appoints all executives and controls the cadre. As per the terms of the employment, the senior functionaries are transferable from one subsidiary to another compulsorily on promotion.
“So unequal PRP among executives of various subsidiaries would create human resource problems for us,” it said. The ministry further cited that Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd has been a low-profit churning company as it charges coal companies on cost basis for services rendered to them. Their executives deserve to get PRP on par with the executives of the subsidiary firms. According to the DPE’s model of PRP, endorsed by the Union Cabinet in 2008, any modification in this regard requires its approval, the minister pointed out.
“The DPE too has supported our proposal, but has said the actual payment should be made by individual companies from their own PBT or from the consolidated PBT of holding company’s consolidated accounts. The total financial implication of this proposal for 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 is Rs192.47 crore,” coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said.
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