After much dithering, the Government on Thursday announced that it plans to divest 5 per cent of its stake in Coal India ltd (CIl) which would garner around Rs 10,000 crore, and further claimed that majority of unions representing the Maharatna company have agreed to the proposal.
“Coal India disinvestment may hit the market in August as three of its five major trade unions have given their consent to proceed with 5 per cent stake sale in the PSU,” Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters. He claimed that the three major unions (namely INTUC, CITU and AITUC) have agreed to the proposal. The Government' had initially planned to divest 10 per cent of its stake in CIl, however after a meeting with the unions on July 30, where apparently there were differences among the workers' representatives on the proposal, it was decided to trim down the divestment to 5 per cent.
When The Pioneer had asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram on July 31 about the exact divestment band in CIl, he had said that there was some ambiguity about what had happened in the meeting between Jaiswal and the unions on July 30, and therefore he would be planning to take up the matter with the Coal Minister. Subsequent to this, Jaiswal made the announcement regarding 5 per cent stake sale in CIl on Thursday. Ministry sources said that after due discussions with the Department of Disinvestment, the proposal would be taken to the Cabinet for its approval soon.
Meanwhile, the Coal Ministry will again hold a meeting with the trade unions on August 5 to deliberate on some of the other issues. CIl employees had earlier threatened to go on strike if the Government went ahead with 10 per cent stake sale in the PSU major. “There is no scope for any labour unrest or strike,” Jaiswal assured. The Government currently holds 90 per cent stake in Coal India, valued at Rs 1,88,227 crore.
CIl got listed on bourses in 2010 through the country's biggest ever initial public offering in which the Government raised Rs 15,199 crore by selling 10 per cent stake. Coal India, which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic production, has a cash balance of about Rs 60,000 crore.