Calcutta Electric Supply Company Ltd, the flagship company of Kolkata-based RPG Group, has posted a net profit of Rs98 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, up by 5 per cent on a year-on-year basis, banking on volume growth as well as decrease in transmission and distribution losses.
Net sales for the period stood at Rs 752 crore up from Rs 680 crore in Q3FY08.
Total income for the quarter was Rs 763 crore, up nearly 10 per cent.
The company claimed that despite the jute mill strike in West Bengal during the quarter, it still managed to achieve a 2 per cent volume growth.
Jute mills account for nearly 18 per cent of its net sales. A 10 per cent increase in fuel prices in December 2008 has resulted in higher fuel costs incurred by the company, said a CESC release. Fuel costs for the quarter stood at Rs228 crore, up from Rs204 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
CESC has recently entered into an agreement with SP Global Solutions (SPGS), a subsidiary of Singapore Power (SP), for technical assistance to revamp its distribution system to minimise system faults, boost revenues through reduction of downtime and build a globally competitive power distribution business under a Rs 2,000 crore hardware investment plan.
Currently, the power utility served around one crore connections in about 22.5 lakh households. Its transmission and distribution losses (T&D losses) were below 14 per cent.