Political Uncertainty Delays Road Transport Reforms

Eight public sector undertakings (PSUs) are among the top 10 performers on the basis of income from operations, according to an analysis of the 1998-99 financial results of 165 companies conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

 

Indian Oil Corporation (income from operations Rs 63,661.40 crore) tops the list followed by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (Rs 23,910.30 crore), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (Rs 21,599.80 crore), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (Rs 14,963 crore), National Thermal Power Corporation (Rs 13,656.40 crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs 7,291.50 crore), Industrial Development Bank of India (Rs 7,291 crore), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Rs 7,001.30 crore), Gas Authority of India Ltd (Rs 6,643.9 crore) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (Rs 5,246.80 crore).

 

 

According to the CII analysis, "... it appears that the corporates have undertaken a massive cost-cutting exercise in the face of the industrial slowdown and improved their bottomlines."

 

Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL, ONGC and GAIL belong to the oil and gas sector; NTPC belongs to the power sector; L&T has diversified operations; IDBI belongs to the financial services sector; Bhel to the electrical machinery sector and MTNL to the telecom services sector.

 

In spite of the industrial slowdown, the corporate sector's income from operations and net profits have shown an improvement during the last financial year.

 

In terms of percentage growth, BPCL achieved an increase of 82.5 per cent, followed by HPCL (66.2 per cent), L&T (28.4 per cent), GAIL (15.8 per cent) and MTNL (12.7 per cent).

 

IDBI achieved an increase of 7.1 per cent, IOC 6.4 per cent and Bhel 5.9 per cent. The income from operations of ONGC dipped by 1.7 per cent. The full-year results show the income from operations, or net sales, registered a 18.4 per cent increase in 1998-99 over 1997-98. However, profit margins were lower in 1998-99 compared with 1997-98. The gross profit margin was 10.6 per cent against 11.3 per cent in the previous year and the net profit margin was 8.4 per cent compared with 9.1 per cent earlier.

 

PSU CLOUT

 

Rank Company Income from operation*

 

1 IOC 63,661.40

2 HPCL 23,910.30

3 BPCL 21,599.80

4 ONGC 14,963.00

5 NTPC 13,656.40

6 L&T 7,291.50

7 IDBI 7,291.00

8 Bhel 7,001.30