State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) reported a standalone loss of ₹1,361.01 crore for the March quarter of FY20, against a net profit of ₹3,124.91 crore in the year-ago period, hit by inventory and forex losses, lower sales and weak refining margins.
Revenue from operations during the fourth quarter was ₹81,296.23 crore, from ₹83,941.67 crore a year earlier.
For the full year, the PSU’s net profit plunged to ₹2,683.19 crore from ₹7,132.02 crore in FY19. Its full year revenue from operations dropped to ₹3,27,580.78 crore (₹3,37,622.53 crore).
“The quarter loss was contributed by essentially two factors. One is the inventory loss, even on marketing. We lost ₹1,937 crore because we had a huge volume of inventory, and demand in the months of April and May was very low. Even in the second fortnight of March, the demand was low,” BPCL Finance Director N Vijayagopal told
“When we plan for production, we do it for 2-3 months’ time. Crude has to come, then it is converted into products and sent to various locations. Since it was not possible to stop what was happening (pandemic), we had a lot more inventory of not only finished products but also of crude oil from the refinery end to the regional outlets,” he added.
“Therefore, volume was high and there was a steep fall in the price of crude oil and products in April and May. All these resulted in a huge marketing and inventory loss,” he said. BPCL also took a forex loss hit of ₹1,211 crore, he added.
Lockdown hits demand
The refiner posted a 5.46 per cent contraction in sales during the fourth quarter as the nationwide lockdown imposed from March slashed demand for diesel and petrol.
Diesel and petrol growth swung into negative territory of minus 8.13 per cent and 0.83 per cent, respectively.
BPCL paid an interim dividend totalling about ₹3,600 crore in March with the government receiving 52.98 per cent of that (in line with its holding in the company). The government also received a dividend distribution tax of ₹327 crore. The dividend pay-out was much more than the net profit for the year.