Closing down of the Gurgaon facility is part of the company's overall plan to cut cost and economise its operations by relocating plants.Apart from this, the company has cut down its personnel cost and there has been a freeze on recruitment for the past one and a half year.

"We will be able to save at least Rs 250-300 per colour TV set by shifting the plant to Noida because high overhead including freight, sales tax and other levies," a top level company official told The Financial Express.The shifting of the plant to Noida will result in an annual saving of atleast Rs 5 crore per annum, said the company source.

The Gurgaon plant was mainly catering to the demand of northern states like Chandhigarh, UP and Haryana, said the source.

Prior to the shifting of the colour TV plant, BPL was sharing the premises with its 100 per cent subsidiary, Electronics Research Limited (ERL) which is engaged in the manufacture of deflection yokes. The premises belongs to BPL which has now been rented out to ERL, which will use it for the manufacture of deflection yoke and APT transformers.

Almost 50 employees working at the erstwhile CTV plant at Gurgaon resigned and were given the option to join ERL and as many as 30 have already accepted the proposal.

As a result of shifting of the plant, the capacity of the Noida plant has gone up to 2,000 CTV per day from the existing level of 1500 CTVs per day.A slowdown in the growth in demand for colour television pushed down BPL Ltd's net profit in the quarter ended June 30, 2000, to Rs 18.96 crore, from Rs 25.46 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Turnover during the same period was down 25 per cent to Rs 388.50 crore.