State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) today reported 85 per cent dip in its net profit in the quarter ended March 31, 2010, as it was not fully compensated for selling fuel below cost.
Net profit declined to Rs 757.53 crore in the January-March quarter of the 2009-10 fiscal from Rs 5,104.04 crore, HPCL chairman and managing director Arun Balakrishnan said here.
The company, which sells petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below imported cost to keep inflation under check, was paid Rs 3,247.14 for selling petrol and diesel below cost in the full fiscal. The government gave it Rs 5,563.13 crore for selling LPG and kerosene below cost, which was Rs 1,226 crore short of the loss it actually incurred on selling cooking fuel in FY'10.
He said last year profit was higher also because of receiving bulk of compensation in the fourth quarter.
Sales climbed to Rs 29,429.68 crore as against Rs 24,875.02 crore a year ago.
In the 2009-10 fiscal, net profit surged to Rs 1,301.37 crore as opposed to Rs 574.98 crore, he said.
Sales, however, declined to Rs 108,598.68 crore compared to Rs 116,427.83 crore in the 2008-09 fiscal.
HPCL reported sales of petroleum products (including exports) during FY'10 at an all time high of 26.3 million tonnes, an increase of 3.5 per cent over the previous year.
The pipeline throughput increased to 11.95 million tonnes compared to 10.58 million tonnes in the previous year, a growth of nearly 13 per cent.
The refineries at Mumbai and Visakh processed 15.76 million tonnes of crude to earn $2.68 on processing every barrel of crude oil.
There was a sharp reduction in interest cost to Rs 904 crores, lower by Rs 1,179 crore from the earlier year, he said.
The depreciation charge was Rs 1,164 crore vis-a-vis Rs 981 crore of the earlier year mainly due to commissioning of the Euro IV fuel projects at Mumbai and Visakh refineries.
For the year 2009-10, HPCL proposed a dividend of Rs 12 per share, which is higher than that of last year at Rs 5.25 per share.
The dividend would result in a total payout of Rs 473 crore including dividend distribution tax.
He said facilities for Euro III/Euro IV petrol production at refineries in Mumbai and Visakh have been commissioned.
HPCL said its 9 million tonnes refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab would be completed by March 2011.