Riding on a strong demand from the chemicals and salt business, Tata Chemicals has clocked a 58 per cent increase in standalone net profit, at Rs 242 crore for the third quarter. In the same quarter last year, the company had reported a Rs 153-crore net profit.

Net sales for the quarter increased by 8.5 per cent to Rs 2531 crore (Rs 2331 crore). On a consolidated basis the net profit for the third quarter increased 6.6 per cent to Rs 272 crore (Rs 255 crore), while net sales went up 9.9 per cent to Rs 4,170 crore (Rs 3,793 crore).

Executive Director and CFO P.K. Ghose, announcing the results, said that while the chemicals and salt business has yielded positive results, the fertiliser business has suffered because of non-payment of Rs 1,496-crore subsidy by the Centre. The performance of the North American and European subsidiaries is satisfactory but the African subsidiary’s sales were impacted by the rains, he said.

Voicing the company’s concern over non-payment of subsidy dues, Managing Director R. Mukundan said: “The non-payment has created cash-flow problems for the company. Some of the payments have been delayed by about nine months. Like all other fertiliser companies, we are also impacted. It has put a lot of strain on the company’s balance sheet,” he said.

He added that the subsidy situation might improve only in the next fiscal. It is an unprecedented situation and the company is under serious cash pressure, “We hope the government does something about it. Without subsidy coming in, we cannot endlessly borrow money from the lenders,” he said.

At the closing of the market hours on the BSE, the stock traded at Rs 354.75, 2.18 per cent lower than the previous close.

rahul.wadke@thehindu.co.in

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