Calcutta HC asks CIL to respond to TCI charges

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed Coal India (CIL) to file a counter-affidavit to reply to the charges of The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI), which filed a lawsuit against the miner for under-pricing coal.

The court of justice IP Mukherjee will hear the dispute on December 12, but in the meantime CIL will have to comply with the directive of the court.

TCI, which has a 1.5 per cent stake in CIL, filed the suit on October 12, alleging that due to under-pricing of coal, CIL will lose Rs 8,700 crore pre-tax profit in 2013 fiscal. A TCI statement said the hedge fund had calculated that CIL had given away the opportunity to earn a staggering Rs 215,250 crore in pre-tax profits since it got listed in 2010.

Although CIL's profit was up 36 per cent in FY12 to R14,788 crore and sales up 24 per cent to Rs 62,415 crore, TCI argued that the government, as the majority shareholder, had made undue interventions and it had not allowed CIL to price coal at par with international prices. FE

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