The extension of the financial year is being done to ``sort out older issues and to complete the restructuring of the company'' and also bring it in line with the income tax accounting year.

Total expenditure has come down to Rs 59.79 crore and includes Rs 2.97 crore charged on proportionate basis out of payments made under the voluntary separation scheme of the company in March 1999.

The results for the quarter to September 30, 1999 also includes the full impact of the supply schemes from the 1,290 tonne per day plant at Jamshedpur which was commissioned in September 1998. However, its impact is reflected for only one month in the corresponding quarter last year.

Significantly, operating profits of the company have shown a distinct improvement at Rs 7.42 crore against Rs 3.10 crore in the comparable quarter of 1998 although sales, quarter-on-quarter, have remained stagnant. However, sales have shown marginal improvement over the previous two quarters.

The bottomline was adversely affected by the full impact of depreciation charges on the Jamshedpur plant whereas in the previous year, depreciation costs of the new plant was reflected only for one month as the plant was commissioned in September 1998 which was the last month of the accounting year.

The company has pointed out that there have been volume and price increases to offset the hike in electricity rates by the state electricity boards. Managing director Raman Pandya said: ``We will continue to exercise tighter control and focus on key areas including cost reduction, wastage, gas losses and power.''

In the last 18 months the company has brought down the number of employees from around 1,450 to 730. According to Pandya, one of the top priorities of the company is to improve the quality and skill levels of employees through a variety of training and development initiatives and better recruitment policies. It has covered all management employees with at least four days of training during the last 12 months.

In 1998-99, the company had reported a net profit of Rs 6.14 crore on sales of Rs 236.56 crore aided by a one-time income of Rs 8.82 crore on the disposal of its Ohmeda division.