Diwali gift for Coal India executives, to get PRP

IN A major decision that will bring a bundle of joy to tens of thousands of executives of Maharatna PSU Coal India Limited (CIL), the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 14 approved the recommendations of the Committee of Secretaries to regularize the 2007 Pay Revision implemented by the CIL with effect from January 1, 2007. However, this is not a precedent for other sick PSUs. "This is being allowed...
as a special dispensation to CIL. However, this dispensation will not be cited as a precedent by other loss-making central public sector enterprises,” an official statement said. The Cabinet also cleared a Rs. 500-crore festival bonanza to Coal India’s executives, managerial staff and supervisors. They will get performance-related pay (PRP) with effect from 2007.

The officers from the world’s largest coal producer have been seeking the government's intervention for early Cabinet approval to facilitate the hike. The executives of the Maharatna PSU started a three-day strike on March 13 and following assurances from management that it would push for early placement of their demand for performance-linked pay before the Cabinet, they called off the strike a day later.

A letter was sent by Coal Mines Officers' Association of India (CMOAI) to Coal Secretary and requested him to place the PRP matter before the Cabinet for approval.
“CIL had two loss-making subsidiaries, Eastern Coalfields Ltd and Bharat Coking Coal Ltd in West Bengal and Jharkhand respectively. But now that there has been a turnaround and all subsidiaries are in profit, we have made an exception and decided to give PRP to all executives and managerial staff with effect from 2007,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister for communication and IT told reporters after the Cabinet decision. A senior Coal Ministry official was quoted as telling a daily that the PRP will entail an annual outgo of ₹500 crore, or less than one per cent of CIL’s annual turnover of ₹72,000 crore.
The payment will be made from a corpus created by pooling the profits of CIL’s subsidiaries, the set off benefits of loss-making units, and CIL’s own profits. It will be an annual corpus with no carry-over provision.
“It was overdue and the government now, in recognition of the performance of CIL in augmenting production, has approved the PRP,” the official added.
It ensure equity among executives who are transferable to subsidiaries, Prasad said. The Cabinet also approved the Committee of Secretaries’ recommendations to regularise the pay revision implemented by CIL from January 1, 2007 in its loss-making arms.
Coal India Limited (CIL) came into being in November 1975 with the government taking over private coal mines. With a modest production of 79 Million Tonnes (MTs) at the year of its inception CIL today is the single largest coal producer in the world. Operating through 81 mining areas CIL is an apex body with 7 wholly owned coal producing subsidiaries and 1 mine planning and consultancy company spread over 8 provincial states of India.