NEW DELHI, Nov 21: Navratna Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has recorded a net profit of Rs 904 crore in the first half of the current fiscal. This is a seven per cent rise over its net profit of Rs 844 crore in the first six months of last year.

Apart from the Rs 348 crore that got added to IOC's net profit last year - from arrears in margins from the oil pool account for previous years - the actual jump in net gain this year is roughly 48 per cent. The jump was partly aided by a lower provision for tax and a reduced interest burden.

The company, which nearly exhausted its external commercial borrowing limit for this year in its attempt to canalise oil imports, managed to bring its interest burden down to Rs 92 crore this year from Rs 126 crore in the first six months of last year. The company set aside only Rs 160 crore as taxes this year as against Rs 252 crore in the first half of last year.

The company's chairman MA Pathan has attributed the company's higher profit to the greater throughput by refineries and pipelines, an IOC release said.

Increased sales and better operations of the Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline have augmented the national oil company's income, it says.

Unaudited results for the current fiscal show a 5.8 per cent rise in its income from sales and operations since the first half of the 1996-97 fiscal. The company's income during the first six months this year was Rs 29,592 crore as against Rs 27,967 crore between April and September last year.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.