January 27: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) posted a net profit of Rs 621.04 crore between October and December last year, which was a 22.5 per cent jump over its profits for the third quarter of the 1997-98 fiscal.The cumulative net profit for the first three quarters of this fiscal now goes up by 15.04 per cent to Rs 1879.51 crore, from Rs 1633.67 crore in the first three months of 1997-98. The net sales of the company, which owns more than 85 per cent of the country's oil and gas resources, is 11 per cent higher in the last three months, at Rs 4006.74 crore.The net sales for the nine months of this fiscal is Rs 11158.30 crore, a mere 2.2 per cent increase over the corresponding period in 1997-98. The whopping rise in income in the last quarter was partly because of Rs 336.34 crore of arrears granted to ONGC for price revisions of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas liquefied (NGL).The company's income from sources other than oil and gas sales also jumped up by 57 per cent to Rs191.60 crore in the third quarter of this year, from Rs 122.22 crore during the corresponding period last year. During the nine months of this fiscal, ONGC's ``other income'' went up by 45 per cent to Rs 546.56 crore, from Rs 376.35 crore during the first three quarters of last year.Even though ONGC's expenditure showed a marginal increase, its interest payments and depreciation (including depletion of wells and amortisation of initial costs of assets) went up during the year. In the last three months ONGC's interest payments went up to Rs 182.94 crore, which was a 33.6 per cent increase over the interest payments during the third quarter of last year.The depreciation charges for the last three months were Rs 799.71 crore, compared to Rs 776.01 crore during the last quarter of 1997-98. The interest and depreciation burden was a recent phenomena.A nine months' comparison between the two years shows a mere eight per cent increase in interest payment and 13 per cent rise in depreciation charges. TheONGC paid Rs 533.58 crore as interest during the last nine months, compared to Rs 493.70 crore in the first three quarters of the previous fiscal. Its depreciation charges went up to Rs 232.93 crore, from Rs 270.08 crore during the period.The provision for taxes also shot up to Rs 544.97 crore this year from Rs 340 crore in the previous fiscal. During the last quarter alone, ONGC paid Rs 212 crore of taxes compared to Rs 85 crore in the third quarter of 1997-98.The higher outgo for taxes, depreciation and interest on borrowed finances notwithstanding, ONGC's net profit was 22.5 per cent higher in the last three months compared to the corresponding period last year. Its net profit rose to Rs 621.04 crore, from Rs 506.96 crore in the third quarter of 1997-98.The company's cumulative net profit for the ongoing fiscal is Rs 1879.51 crore, which is 15.04 per cent higher than its net profit for the first nine months of the previous fiscal.
