The world’s biggest coal miner said the increase was helped by higher supplies to customers and a decline in wage costs.

Sales only rose 2.5% to 199 billion rupees ($US3.57 billion) during the quarter but employee expenses dropped 21% to 74.7 billion rupees.

In a statement on Monday, Coal India said net income soared to 54.1 billion rupees in the three months ended March 31 from 40.1 billion rupees a year earlier.

The market was expecting a net profit of 51.4 billion rupees on sales of 193.4 billion rupees, according to a poll of 18 analysts.

The state-owned miner accounts for more than 80% of Indian coal production and plans to further increase production this year to help meet local demand, expecting its output to grow 6.5% to 482 million tons in the financial year started on April 1.

The company reported a cash reserve of 622.4 billion rupees at the quarter’s close.

Shipments during the quarter rose 5.7% to 130Mt but production declined marginally to 143.3Mt from 144.6Mt a year earlier, Coal India said.

The announcement was made after trading closed on Monday.

In a separate announcement, Coal India said it would raise prices from Tuesday, adding the hikes would increase revenue by about 21.19 billion rupees for the rest of FY2014.