Subdued demand from the power sector along with lower realisation per tonne from sales impacted the bottomline of Coal India for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2020.

The miner has reported a 23 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 4,625.16 crore against Rs 6,026.47 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Consolidated sales during the January-March quarter dropped to Rs 25,597.43 crore from Rs 26,704.27 crore in the same period of the previous year.

The miner had offered 139.17 million tonnes (mt) of coal during the quarter through the fuel supply agreement (FSA) route at an average realisation of Rs 1,445.75 per tonne. The average realisation on sales of 21.02mt through the e-auction route was Rs 2,105.74 per tonne.

In the corresponding fourth quarter of 2018-19, the average realisation from FSA sales of 142.42mt was Rs 1,460 per tonne while the e-auction sales of 16.71mt was at an average realisation of Rs 2,754 per tonne.

For the quarter ended March 2020, the company produced 213.71 mt of coal against 194.45 mt produced in the January-March quarter of 2018-19. But coal offtake during the March 2020 quarter was almost flat at 163.87 mt against 163.51 mt a year ago.

The firm’s consolidated expenses increased to Rs 22,033.90 crore from Rs 21,471.78 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19.

CIL shares closed the day at Rs 141.95 apiece on the BSE, up 0.82 per cent.

The company in a filing on the bourses said that based on its review of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on its business and current indicators of economic condition, there is no significant impact on its financial results and carrying value of assets.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal output. The company is eyeing one billion tonne of production by 2023-24. Its production and offtake target for 2020-21 has been set at 710 MT.