Balance sheet shows Coal India has hit a record high in Q4FY19

The rise in profit was coupled with a reduction in employee benefit expenses, which came down by 35.74 percent at Rs 10,700.79 crore in Q4FY19

New Delhi: Asia's largest coal producer, Coal India Ltd (CIL) posted a whopping 362 percent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 6,024.23 crore in the fourth quarter of financial year 2018-19. The public sector undertaking (PSU) had recorded Rs 1,302.63 crore in the corresponding period of financial year 2017-18.

Rise in profit coupled with a reduction in employee benefit expenses

The rise in profit was coupled with reduction in employee benefit expenses, which came down by 35.74 percent at Rs 10,700.79 crore in Q4FY19 as against Rs 16,651.20 crore posted in the Q4FY18. "Better average realisation in both coal,Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) and e-auction sales coupled with operational cost control propelled the company to its best ever financial performance. Importantly, coal quality variance was under control and we have been able to arrest the grade slippage to large extent", a company official said.

According to analysts, the drastic fall in employee benefit expenses was primarily on account of the payment of one-time increase in gratuity settlement of Rs 7,384 crore.

Average realisation per tonne of coal goes up

Average realisation per tonne of coal in the FSA also went up by 8 percent to settle at Rs 1,348 during 2018-19 from the previous level of Rs 1,243 during 2017-18. The overall average realisation per tonne of coal rose up to Rs 1,529 during 2018-19 as opposed to Rs 1,398 on a year-on-year basis.

The PSU's net revenue also went up by 7.53 percent to Rs 28,546.26 crore as against the earnings of Rs 26,547.58 crore during the fourth quarter (Q4) of FY18.

Coal India sold 142.42 million tonne (mt) of coal

During the March quarter, CIL sold 142.42 million tonne (mt) of coal via the FSA route which fetched it Rs 20,794.15 crore. Another Rs 4,602.64 crore was earned by selling 16.71 mt of coal via the e-auction route.

The company's contractual expenses also fell by 1.38 percent to Rs 3,838.56 crore benefiting the company post higher profits. A company official said that for the entire financial year, all the subsidiaries of Coal India had managed to earn a profit.