MOIL handed over Rs 29.69 Cr interim dividend cheque to govt

New Delhi, Jan 31 (UNI) The Maharashtra based public sector company Manganese Ore (India) Limited (MOIL) announced an interim dividend of 130 per cent for the year 2007-08 and paid Rs 29.69 crores to the government as its share.

The interim dividend cheque was handed over to the Steel Minister Ramvilas Paswan by MOIL's Chairman and Managing Director Kishan Lal Mehrotra at a function held here today.

Speaking on the occasion Mr Paswan expressed his happiness over the consistent performance shown by the company and assured full support from the government in further improving the same.

He said the company has been consistently showing excellent performance from past several years. It has obtained excellent ratings under Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with the Goverment for the last 12 years. It will receive Prime Minister's Merit Certificate or fulfilling the MOU targets continuously for the last six years.

The Minister said in view of the company's excellent performance, the MOIL's status has been upgraded from Mniratna Category II to Category I.

Later, talking to newsmen Mr Mehrotra said during the year 2006-07, the production of manganese ore was 10.47 lakh tonnes reflecting an increase of 21 per cent as compared to the previous year.

He said the production of electrolytic manganese dioxide was 1,312 tonnes. The production of ferro manganese was also higher at 10,200 Tonnes registering an increase of 65 per cent compared to previous year. The total sales turnover of 2006-07 stood at Rs 417.63 crores registering an increase of 25 per cent as compared to the previous year.

The company earned profit before tax of Rs 201.15 crores and profit after tax of Rs 134.21 crores during this period.

He said the company spent approximately Rs 60 lakhs as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities during 2006-07.

Responding to questions Mr Mehrotra said the company has just commissioned a 5 Mega Watts (MW) wind farm at Nagda Hills near Dewas in Madhya Pradesh (MP). The company is now in the process of installing a new wind-based power plant with 15 MW capacity at Ratedi Hills, Dewas in MP and is expected to be completed by March 2008.

He said MOIL is also planning to set up a Sintering Plant for sintering manganese ore fines at Balaghat at an estimated cost of Rs 18 crores in Joint Venture (JV).

Apart from this the company has entered into a 50:50 JV with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for the production of ferro manganese and silico manganese through three furnaces to be set up at Bhilai at an estimated cost of Rs 225 crores.

UNI/BKS PDT HT1757