The company's sales turnover in the last fiscal, according to Pathan, went up by over 17 per cent to Rs 69,430 crore compared to Rs 59,176 crore in 1997-98. IOC sold 46.2 million tonne of petroleum products during 1998-99 registering a growth of 6.5 per cent over the previous fiscal's sales of 43.4 million tonne.

The board of directors at a meeting on Friday recommended a 130 per cent dividend. In 1997-98 the company had given a dividend of 50 per cent. This will absorb an amount of Rs 506 crore compared to Rs 195 crore during the previous year. Significantly, IOC has not skipped dividend since 1966-67 and so far Rs 1,050 crore have been disbursed toshareholders till 1997-98.

Pathan further said that by 1998-99 end IOC's fixed assets including work in progress had gone up by 25 per cent to Rs 21,646 crore against Rs 17,314 crore at the end of 1997-98 end. He added that about 83 per cent of these had been financed through internally generated resources.

IOC's net worth at the end of 1998-99 stands at Rs 12,269 crore against Rs 10,614 crore in the previous fiscal registering an increase of 16 per cent.

The company's liquidity position of the corporation improved substantially during the last fiscal with the redemption of bonds worth Rs 5,047 crore issued by the Government. Bonds worth Rs 6,478 crore had been issued to the corporation in March 1998 against recoverables from the Oil Coordination Committee.

During 1998-99, IOC's six operating refineries at Guwahati, Barauni, Gujarat, Haldia, Mathura amd Digboi achieved over 100 per cent capacity utilisation for the sixth year in a row. The seventh refinery at Panipat was commissioned during the year.