BSES has been lighting up the suburbs of Mumbai for nearly 75 years now. Its services extend from Mahim in the south to Bhayandar in the north covering an area of 220 square km against the 60sq km covered by the BEST. The company has witnessed a steady growth since its incorporation in 1926.
In the audited results for 1997-98, BSES reported a slower sales growth of 6.6 per cent compared with the 18 per cent growth the year before. Despite a slower sales growth, the company increased its PBT by 36.2 per cent compared with 25.8 per cent the previous year. This the company achieved by lowering operating costs and better management of interest and depreciation burden. The tax burden of the company increased by 600 per cent during the year.
BSES, however, maintained its net profit growth, with the bottomline increasing substantially during the year.
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The company further improved its performance in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Despite income from energy sales having decreased by nearly seven per cent over the corresponding period of the previous year, from Rs 496.89 crore to Rs 463.22 crore, the net profit of the company saw an increase of 15.6 per cent - from Rs 68.06 crore to Rs 78.66 crore. This may be due to the company's higher realisation from engineering and construction contracts.
In fact, the company's other income increased by 388.5 per cent over the previous period - from Rs 33.12 crore to Rs 161.78 crore. In 1995-96, the company decentralised its entire suburban distribution system into four zones to provide better services and to facilitate effective operational control. BSES's total sale of energy crossed the 5,000 million unit (mu) mark in 1996-97. In 1997-98 it sold 5,698 mu. Purchase of energy accounted for about 52 per cent of total sales. Purchase of energy which was 3486 mu in 1996-97 declined to 2975 mu in 1997-98. With larger amount of electricity being supplied by its Dahanu power station to the company's own area of supply, sale of power from Dahanu to western India grid declined to 1053 mu last year compared with 1423 mu in 1996-97.
Itspower generation increased 16 per cent during 1997-98. The company's power station at Dahanu generated 3,723 mu at an average plant load factor (plf) of 85 per cent during the year against 3,206 mu generated at a plf of 73 per cent the year before. At the end of 1997-98, BSES had 18.14 lakh consumers which represents an increase of 4.25 per cent over the previous year. During the year sale of power to commercial, residential and industrial consumers increased by 13.16 per cent, 7.45 per cent and 1.79 per cent respectively. Distribution losses which reached 14.9 per cent in 1993-94, started falling with strict vigilance and replacement of out-lived meters. It fell to 13.9 per cent in 1994-95, 12.5 per cent in 1995-96, and 11.6 per cent during both 1996-97 and 1997-98.
The company during the year incurred a capital expenditure of about Rs 153 crore. It has planned to invest an additional Rs 550 crore in next three years as a part of its five-year comprehensive programme of augmentation, upgradation and modernisation of the system.