Kolkata: Retail shareholders of Coal India on Wednesday asked the CIL management to take decisions to ensure interests of minority stakeholders.
The company board should take decisions independently and not under any pressure from outside (government) and the management should ensure interest of the minority shareholders, a retail stakeholder Santosh K Saraf told the board of directors at the AGM here on Wednesday.
Another shareholder said the management should focus on absolute economic value addition for the shareholders, which is 5.96 lakh in number.
Coal India chairman A K Dubey did not reply to these comments but said the company had taken steps for preparedness for higher production and evacuation.
The government still holds 89.6 percent in the country's largest coal mining company.
The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI), once Coal India's single-largest private shareholder, had in the past blamed directors of the state-run firm for taking decisions at the behest of the government.
TCI had alleged that it had cost the firm more than Rs 2 lakh crore for not matching domestic coal price with the then landed cost of imported coal.
The new government had recently asked the monopoly coal miner to reduce its sales in e-auction from 58 MT in 2013-14 to 25 MT in this financial year to make available more coal for the power sector.
But the CIL board had expressed its apprehension on such a move fearing significant revenue loss and had sent a note to the ministry on the issue.
Asked about the resignation of independent directors just ahead of the AGM, Dubey said it was their personal decision.
