“There have been some payment issues in Muscat but they have all been sorted out. It is business as usual and workers will be paid their salaries,” Mr Y.D. Murthy, Executive Director — Finance, NCC Ltd, told Business Line.
Mr Murthy said the company's overseas business is mainly concentrated in Muscat and Dubai, where it has an order book of over Rs 1,800 crore now under execution. “During November and December, there were some delays in release of amounts to us from clients there, mainly local municipality. This had put pressure on our funds there,” he said.
“The matter has been sorted out after the local client released the amount. In fact, their finances were under pressure in November and December due to local budgetary allocations, which meant delayed release of funds to us. But all of these have now been streamlined and we expect to disburse all the salary amounts to local staffers,” he explained.
During the last financial year ended March 31, 2011, NCC had generated total business of about Rs 1,200 crore and expects this to be about Rs 1,100 crore this financial year.
A local Muscat daily, quoting some workers, had reported that some workers, spread across seven construction sites in the Emirate, had boycotted work alleging non-payment of salaries and overtime wages for January and February.
The company scrip closed the day's trade down 1.26 per cent at Rs 59.