Coal India Limited (CIL) on Wednesday reported a 32 per cent decline in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2025 (Q2FY25) as lower coal sales amid weak demand pulled down costs despite lower employee benefits expenses.

Consolidated net profit of the public sector miner during the quarter was ₹4,262.64 crore compared to ₹6,274.80 crore in Q2FY25. Net sales during the quarter was ₹26,909.23 crore compared to ₹27,271.30 crore in the Q2FY25, down 1.32 per cent.

In volume terms, Coal India’s sales was 165.99 million tonnes (mt) compared to 168.11 mt in Q2FY25. Coal sales through e-auction was 15.31 mt during Q2FY26 at an average realisation of ₹2,292.40 per tonne compared to 15.09 mt in Q2FY25 at an average realisation of ₹2,453.92 per tonne.

Coal sales through fuel supply agreements was marginally down at 147.46 mt compared to 148.21 mt in Q2FY25, but realisation per tonne from fuel supply agreement sales was higher at ₹1,478.39 per tonne against ₹1,466.33 per tonne in Q2FY25.

CIL’s employee benefits expenses during Q2FY26 was ₹10,730 crore, down 3 per cent from ₹11,108 crore. The company saw a 4 per cent reduction in manpower, with the employee strength at 2,16,156 as of September 30, 2025.

During the first six months of FY26, Coal India’s total production was at 329.14 mt, down 4 per cent from 341.34 mt in the year-ago period. Unseasonal rain has affected opencast coal production and power generation from thermal sources in the first six months of FY26 was down 5 per cent from the corresponding period previous
year.

CIL’s board on Wednesday approved a second interim dividend of ₹10.25 per share, having declared a first interim dividend of ₹5.5 per share in July.

The company’s scrips at ₹382.05 were down 2.36 per cent at the BSE.

It also said that following the GST rate rationalisation, there is no inverted duty structure and the company is able to utilise accumulated input tax credit against output tax liability.