Coal India Q4 profit up 362 per cent to Rs 6,024 crore

Kolkata: In what can be billed as the best ever financial performance, the State-run coal behemoth Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Thursday notched up a Q4 consolidated net profit of Rs 6,024.23 crore, up 362 per cent from Rs 1,302.63 crore in the year-ago period, riding on operational cost control, better average realisation in both FSA and e-auction sales, among others. CIL's net profit for the whole of last fiscal was Rs 17,462.18 crore, up by 148 per cent from Rs 7,038.44 crore earned in the previous fiscal. Coal India also recorded the highest ever gross sales of Rs 1, 40,603 crore and net sales of Rs 92,896.08 crore during the period, the company said.

"Coal India's best ever financial performance can be attributed to much improved average realization- in both FSA and e-auction sales, along with operational cost control Significantly, coal quality variance was under control and we have been able to arrest the grade slippage to a large extent", top CIL officials said.

The officials said that the average realisation per tonne of coal in FSA sales witnessed a 8 per cent increase to Rs 1348 during FY 2018-19, compared to Rs 1243 in FY 2017-18. Overall average realisation per tonne of coal went up to Rs 1529 during FY 2018-19 compared to Rs 1398 in the previous fiscal, reflecting a growth of 9 per cent.

When it comes to production, CIL, as a whole, produced 194.45 million tonne (MT) of coal in the Q4, 2018-19, up from 183.45 MT produced during the same quarter of the previous fiscal, with an increase of 11 MT in volume terms and registering a growth of 6 per cent.

CIL's revenue from operations during the fourth quarter was at Rs 28,546.26 crore, up by 7.5 per cent from Rs 26,547.58 crore in the corresponding quarter of the 2017-18. Significantly, the company's total expense including employee benefits was down to Rs 21,473.14 crore, as against Rs 27,396.58 crore in year-ago period of 2017-18.