• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

BOC India posts Rs 1.86-cr loss in H1

KOLKATA: BOC India Ltd has posted a marginal three per cent increase in sales at Rs 149.98 crore for the six-month period ended September 30, 2001 over the same period the previous year. The company, however, posted a loss of Rs 1.86 crore before extraor dinary item compared to a small profit of Rs 7 lakh in the same period the previous year.

The company sources attributed the loss to two breakdowns at the company's 1,290-tpd plant at Jamshedpur and the recession in the steel industry on which the company's gas business has been traditionally dependent.

The company, as the sources indicate, successfully resolved claims aggregating Rs 52.41 crore from its power supplier Tata Iron & Steel Company with retrospective effect from 1995-96, out of which Rs 39.38 crore is recoverable from contracted customers i ncluding Tata Steel as per long-term agreements. The net claim of Rs 13.03 crore is thus provided for in the half-yearly accounts as an extraordinary item.

In line with the company's policy to dispose off its idle non-performing assets, including any surplus real estate, the company has concluded sale of its property at Mumbai. The profit of Rs 10.56 crore arising out of the deal has been accounted for as e xtraordinary income, which has substantially reduced the impact of the charge on account of arrears of power fuel surcharge.

As a matter of strategy to reduce dependence on the steel sector, the company is actively taking steps to develop businesses in the areas of petroleum, chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, food and health. The company had already take n concrete steps to enter the LPG distribution business, the sources added. -- Our Bureau