ONGC's board of directors has declared a final dividend of 25 per cent on paid-up equity capital of Rs 1,425.93 crore. ONGC had earlier declared an interim dividend of 40 per cent for the year ended March 31, 2000.

The company reported a net profit of Rs 2,754.50 crore on net sales of Rs 14,962.80 crore in 1998-99. Total expenditure was down by 28.03 per cent to Rs 60,034 crore as against Rs 83,418 crore reported in 1998-99.

According to the company's audited financial results, the provision for depreciation was increased by 33.25 per cent to Rs 4,252.29 crore as against the previous year's Rs 3,191.15 crore. Company officials explained that it had adopted a higher rate of depreciation on process platform with retrospective effect. An additional amount of Rs 619.20 crore has been charged to the profit and loss account on this account. Profit before tax was up by nearly 70 per cent to Rs 5,930.44 crore from Rs 3,574.65 crore. ONGC has made an increased provision for tax at Rs 2,300.97 crore as against Rs 820.15 crore provided in the previous year.

Amtrex Hitachi back in black
AMTREX Hitachi Appliances, a joint venture between Hitachi Ltd, Japan, and the Ahmedabad-based Lalbhai group, has posted an impressive 33 per cent growth in revenue. The company, which was in the red till the last fiscal with a loss of Rs 7.3 crore, recorded a profit after tax of Rs 3.5 crore this fiscal.

In view of this, the board of directors, at a meeting held here on Wednesday, has proposed a dividend of 10 per cent. Commenting on the performance, managing director of Amtrex Hitachi, Naishadh Parikh maintained that Hitachi's participation and involvement had helped the company turn out a credible performance.