After the 17th annual general meeting of the company here on Saturday, Nalco chairman and managing director SN Johri told The Financial Express the total payout would be Rs 128.86 crore against Rs 103.09 crore in 1996-97. He said in 1997-98, Nalco achieved the highest-ever sales turnover of Rs 1,853.54 crore, an increase of 4.8 per cent over the previous year. Similarly, it posted a Rs 546.97 crore net profit against Rs 491.76 crore in 1996-97, an increase of 12 per cent.

Nalco, which is a profit-making public-sector undertaking, has been under constant pressure from the ministry of finance for higher dividend payouts since 1995-96. It had paid a meagre 3 per cent dividend in 1994-95 and 3.5 per cent in 1995-96. However, in 1996-97, the ministry of finance insisted on a higher dividend,rejecting the recommendation of the Nalco board for a 6 per cent payout. So the 16th AGM had to be rescheduled. Buckling under pressure from the ministry, the company had to announce a higher dividend of 8 per cent for 1996-97.

Addressing the 17th AGM of the company on Saturday, Johri said Nalco had, in 1997-98, established new benchmarks in production and profitability. The company produced a record 26.62 lakh tonne of bauxite in 1997-98 against the previous year's 25.58 lakh tonne. It produced 8,83,300 tonne of alumina against 8,40,062 tonne in 1996-97. In both the segments, production exceeded rated capacities, creating all-time records.

This year, while aluminium production was 2,00,162 tonne, power generation from its 720mw captive plant stood at 3,902 million units. Speaking about the Rs 3,727 crore expansion programme, Johri said work at the project sites was on in full swing. In the first phase, the mining capacity would be doubled from 24 lakh tonne to 48 lakh tonne and the alumina refinerycapacity from the present 8 lakh tonne to 15.75 lakh tonne, with an investment of Rs 1,665 crore. The second phase, estimated to cost Rs 2,062 crore, envisages smelter capacity expansion from 2.30 lakh tonne to 3.45 lakh tonne and power plant from 720mw to 840mw.

Johri said Nalco is also implementing a number of downstream value-added projects like special grade alumina, zeolite, gallium and auto wheel, besides the Rs 76.43 crore strip-casting plant.

There are about 22,000 shareholders of this blue-chip company. The central government owns 87.12 per cent of the company's paid-up equity capital of Rs 1,228.62 crore. The balance has been disinvested in favour of mutual funds, employees and others in two trenches by the government since 1990.