The Hindu : Business : Steel PSEs profit up 21 p.c.

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Wednesday, Dec 06, 2006
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Steel PSEs profit up 21 p.c.

Special Correspondent

Big increase in contributions to Exchequer by way of duty and tax

CHENNAI: The contribution to the Central and State exchequer by public sector enterprises under the Union Ministry of Steel has increased steeply in the last three years, according to official sources.

The contributions of five leading companies under the ministry, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd, Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd and Manganese Ore India Ltd, by way of excise duty, customs duty, dividend, corporate tax, sales tax and royalty have gone up from Rs 5,761 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 13,110 crore in 2005-06.

The profit before tax for all the 15 PSEs under the ministry has also exhibited a significant improvement of about 21 per cent in the first of half of 2006-07, to reach Rs 6,867 crore against Rs 5,649 crore in the corresponding of last year. Among major initiatives that the ministry has undertaken in the past three years are announcement of the national steel policy in 2005, merger of Indian Iron and Steel (IISCO) with SAIL, ongoing merger of Bharat Refractories and Maharashtra Elektrosmelt, Neelachal Ispat Nigam with SAIL and Sponge Iron India with NMDC. The government is meanwhile considering proposals related to financial restructuring of Hindustan Steelworks Construction Ltd (HSCL) and MECON.

It has been decided that all profit-making PSEs under the ministry will spend about two per cent of distributable profits towards fulfilling their corporate social responsibility. As for capacity addition, RINL is adding three million tonnes of capacity by 2008 at a cost of Rs 8,900 crore, while SAIL is adding 9.5 million tonnes by 2010 at a cost of Rs 37,000 crore.

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