Coal India net plunges 52% on higher staff benefits

Coal India Ltd. saw a 52% decline in net profit in the fourth quarter from ₹2,718.8 crore to ₹1,295.3 crore in the January to March period of 2017-18. Operational income rose by ₹2,057.7 crore to ₹26,909.2 crore during this period.

Annual profits dipped by about 24% to ₹7,020.2 crore in 2017-18 from ₹9,279.7 crore in 2016-17, while annual income rose 3.8% to ₹87,268.6 crore.

The dip in profits is due to increase in employee benefit expenses by 80% to ₹16,653.9 crore during the quarter, on account of gratuity and provisioning for salaries and wages for officers and for workmen. The year’s outgo on this account was ₹42,633.6 crore, which was 27% higher than the year earlier.

CIL said that employee benefit expenses for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2018 included a provision of ₹646.9 crore and ₹899.1 crore respectively, towards revision of executives as per the Third Pay Revision Committee Commission recommendation (due from January 1, 2017).

Revised wages

For the non-executive employees, whose wage agreement was finalised in October 2017, CIL is already paying revised wages, but has made a provision of ₹2,849.6 crore for the July 2016 to March 2017 period.

Further, CIL had to provide ₹7,384.4 crore towards increased gratuity payouts.