Addressing the company's annual general meeting at Vadodara on Tuesday, he said Vadodara complex requires nearly six lakh tonnes of naphtha per annum and the reduction in prices will benefit the company. He added that IOC has also agreed to revise the prices of other key stocks.

He said the government has permitted IPCL to utilise imported naphtha for power generation at Dahej and this will substantially reduce power generation cost at Dahej.

Ramanathan said that the year 1997-98 was a very difficult year for the industries all over the country and there was chaos in the South-East Asia and the petrochemical business suffered due to cheaper imports.

Despite the adverse business climate, the company notched up a net profit of Rs244 crore. The board has recommended to maintain the dividend at 40 per cent, he added.

He said the loss in profits in the first quarter of 1998=99 was due to weakening of prices, oversupply of petrochemicals and on account of loss of production to the tune of 35,000 tonnes of polyethylene at Nagothane complex that was under shut-down for 45 days.

He said all the plants of the company are operating at full capacity. The polymer prices have started looking up. The price increase, was in the range of $20 to $30 per tonne in the last couple of weeks, he added.