The Hindu Business Line : State Trading Corpn posts record turnover

FOR a company operating in the deregulated milieu, with its canalising role for trading increasingly diminishing for want of bulk orders from the Government, the State Trading Corporation of India Ltd (STC) has posted an all-time high turnover of about Rs 5,400 crore for the first three quarters of the current fiscal.

Senior company officials told Business Line here that STC's April-December 2003 turnover is particularly salutary, in that it is far higher than the full-year turnover ever scaled by the corporation in the past and is about three times the proportionate target of Rs 1,875 crore under the MoU it signed with the Government at the inception of the current fiscal.

The company has declared an interim dividend of 20 per cent for the fiscal 2003-04.

The officials said the corporation hopes to end 2003-04 with a record turnover of Rs 6,500 crore, surpassing the MoU target of Rs 2,500 crore, thereby reversing the trend of losses piled up during the past two consecutive financial years.

The corporation's return to black was enabled by a profit before tax of Rs 10 crore for the nine-month period, as against a loss of about Rs 40 crore during the comparable period of 2002.

Export turnover during the period under review registered a growth of 75 per cent at Rs 717 crore (Rs 410 crore). The export turnover was also 42 per cent higher than the proportionate MoU target of Rs 506 crore. STC also has export contracts worth over Rs 800 crore for various items on hand.

The sources said the corporation continued to attach considerable importance to the export of foodgrains and was able to push exports to Rs 650 crore from Rs 373 crore previously. Sugar was another major export item, of exports with sales amounting to Rs 55 crore.

Its consistent efforts to foster exports of manufactured products also paid dividends as the corporation was able to secure an order for exports of G.I sheets, valuing Rs 61 crore, to Sri Lanka, with shipments having already been begun. STC's import turnover, at Rs 4,557 crore during April to December 2003, was 3.5 times the proportionate MoU target of Rs 1,294 crore. Import sales of bullion, amounting to about Rs 3,700 crore, continued to contribute a major share in the total import turnover, the sources added.

Further, STC expanded its edible oil import operations and effected sales of edible oil worth Rs 362 crore, as against only Rs 56 crore during the corresponding period last year. The corporation also recently began importing vanaspati under the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Trade, registering a turnover of Rs 55 crore by way of such imports.

According to the sources, last year, STC made a modest start in the import of hydrocarbons by arranging import of superior kerosene oil (SKO); this year during the period under review, it further diversified into import of hydrocarbons such as coal, coke, bitumen, besides foraying into the import of minerals and metals. Its import in respect of these items amounted to Rs 255 crore.

Import of fertilisers on the corporation's own commercial account, which has also been undertaken for the first time, accounted for a turnover of Rs 160 crore. The sources said domestic sales by the corporation at Rs 106 crore during April-December 2003 was higher by 41 per cent than the proportionate MoU target of Rs 75 crore, with major items of domestic trading comprising edible oils, pulses/coarse grains, jute, HR coils and tea.