KENDRAPARA: Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) AK Jha on Sunday said the company would continue to contribute more than mandated two per cent of the Profit Before Tax (PBT) in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and partner in progress of the State. Addressing mediapersons, he said MCL has been at the top of spending under CSR and it touched `180 crore. It has been working in all sectors including funding in setting up Heart Research Institute in Jharsuguda, support to upgrade VIMSAR at Burla, MoU with ALIMA to provide free artificial limbs to 10,000 people, water supply in 19 villages, providing toilets in 10,546 schools in 14 districts and medical college at Talcher.
Revealing that MCL contributes 25 per cent (pc) of the coal produced by Coal India along with seven of its subsidiaries, he said from 23 million tonne in 1992, when MCL was formed, to 143 million tonnes in 2018 is no mean achievement in the last 27 years. MCL has registered a growth of 2.8 pc while it is 12 pc in Over Burden Removal even as there has been a dip in coal off-take due to squeezing of stock. Similarly, 81 pc of the coal off-take (dispatch) has been done using eco-friendly mode. Accordingly, there has been a growth of 1.67 pc in total PBT against last year and it is likely to increase after audit is over, he added.
Reacting on coal production scaling new heights at 7.83 lakh tonne in a single day, he explained that with support of the State Government, MCL is confident of achieving the target of coal production from existing 82 million tonne to targeted 89 million tonne from Talcher Coalfields of the company. However, MCL has achieved coal production target of 61 million tonne from coalfields in Jharsuguda and Sundargarh.
This apart, MCL has contributed `3,414.7 crore to the State exchequer and `10,191.4 crore to the national exchequer by means of royalty and taxes and it would also go up with coal production, he informed. On the R& R front, while MCL has sanctioned `678 crore compensation in 2017-18 fiscal, 773 persons have been provided employment taking the cumulative employment figures to 14,999 in the last five years, he added.