The Hindu Business Line : STC hopeful of exceeding turnover target

New Delhi, Jan 28 State Trading Corporation of India Ltd (STC) is aiming to set a higher turnover target for its memorandum of understanding (MoU) discussions with the Government for the fiscal 2008-09, even as it is confident of ending the current fiscal with a turnover of Rs 15,000 crore, against the MoU target of Rs 10,000 crore.

Performance

Talking to Business Line here on the Corporation’s performance in the first three quarters, the STC Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Arvind Pandalai, said the company’s turnover of Rs 11,089 crore during April-December 2007 was 48 per cent higher than the proportionate MoU target of Rs 7,500 crore, mainly due to high growth in exports.

He said that the major items of exports include project exports of Rs 1,439 crore, chemicals and pharma products of Rs 611 crore, jewellery of Rs 409 crore. He said that the Corporation had gone into export of gold jewellery as it gives a better margin, albeit a smaller turnover.

He said that on the import front, the Corporation’s turnover of Rs 7,424 crore during the first-three quarters was higher by 36 per cent than the proportionate MoU target of Rs 5,475 crore. Major items of imports include bullion (Rs 3,049 crore), wheat (Rs 1,548 crore), hydrocarbons/minerals/metals/petrochemicals (Rs 742 crore) and pulses (Rs 614 crore).

Various initiatives

Asked about the various initiatives being set off by the Corporation, Mr Pandalai said that after its foray into CTC tea production in Koodalur in the Nilgris district in Tamil Nadu where STC procured tea leaves directly from small tea growers for processing and sale of made tea in the domestic market, efforts are on to replicate the exercise in other tea producing States. STC is on the lookout for another plant in Kothagiri district for production of orthodox tea, besides holding talks with West Bengal tea producers for a similar arrangement.

Tohfa brand

He said the domestic sale of STC’s own ‘Tohfa’ brand tea through Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation (GSCSC) was progressing with more districts in the State being brought under the scheme. He said the Corporation’s chilly production in Haveri district in Karnataka has begunand plans are afoot to start a pepper processing plant particularly when quality pepper is sought from India by overseas buyers.

Mr Pandalai said the Corporation has begun its procurement of foodgrains for the State Government agencies to supplement supply of foodgrains for the various State Government- run programmes. STC’s success in rice procurement in Chhattisgarh, whereby the Corporation buys paddy and mills it and hands over to the State procurement machinery, has helped in providing a better price to far-flung area farmers where FCI (Food Corporation of India) machinery is unable to reach.

He said talks are on with the Madhya Pradesh Government for procurement of wheat, using the expertise developed by the Corporation.

Mr Pandalai contends that with the Corporation gaining experience in new activities, the aim is to improve the bottomline and putting more and more systems to manage the various operations. He said the company is developing an effective ERP (enterprise resource planning) in order to make each operation transparent and more efficient. A similar task of revving up its subsidiaries has been given to Tata Consultancy Services, he added.