Govt may sell 10% in Coal India

In a bid to restart the disinvestment process, the government is planning to sell up to 10 per cent of its stake in the state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL), the country’s largest coal producer. The move is a part of a government’s proposal, where proceeds from the stake sale of major public sector undertakings (PSUs) will be used to bridge the fiscal deficit.

Coal India, along with its seven subsidiaries, accounts for around 85 per cent of the total domestic coal production. In the current financial year ended March 2009, the company is planning to produce around 435 million tonnes of the dry fuel as compared with 403 million tonnes produced in the previous year.