NTPC net profit down 2.3% at Rs 2,438 crore in July-September quarter

New Delhi: State-owned power giant NTPC on Monday reported a decline of 2.3 percent in its standalone net profit at Rs 2,438.60 crore for quarter ended September due to higher borrowing and depreciation cost.

The company's net profit was Rs 2,496.98 crore in the quarter ended on September 30, 2016, NTPC Ltd said in a BSE filing today.

According to the statement, the total income of the company rose to Rs 19,960.35 crore in second quarter compared to Rs 19,588.56 crore a year ago.

The depreciation costs rose to Rs 1,712.68 crore in the second quarter from Rs 1,434.15 crore a year ago. Similarly the finance cost increased to Rs 919.47 crore in the quarter from Rs 889.83 crore a year ago.

Its net profit in April-September period stood at Rs 5,056.77 crore compared to Rs 4,836.60 crore in the same period of the last fiscal.

Total income of the company in the first half of this fiscal was Rs 40,502.28 crore compared to Rs 38,809.36 crore a year ago.

The company said that average tariff during the first half of this fiscal was Rs 3.21 per unit. The gross power generation of the company was up at 129.45 billion units (BUs) in April-September this fiscal compared to 125.14 (BUs) a year ago.

Its gross electricity generation also rose to 64.04 BUs in the quarter ended September compared with 60.59 BUs in the year ago period.

Plant load factor (PLF) or capacity utilisation for coal based power plants was 77.81 percent in first half of 2017-18 compared to 77.98 percent year ago.

Similarly, the PLF for coal-based plants was 76.61 percent in the quarter ended September this fiscal compared to 74.65 percent in year-ago period.

The company's dependence on imported coal has reduced as it used 0.16 million metric tonnes (MMT) in the first half of 2017-18 compared to 0.82 MMT a year ago. Similarly imported coal used by company came down to 0.02 MMT in the second quarter from 0.26 MMT a year ago.

The company's group installed generation capacity was 51,708 MW as on September 30, 2017 up from 47,228 MW a year ago.