NTPC net profit down 18% to Rs 2,496 crore

NTPC, India’s largest power generating company, reported an 18 per cent drop in its stand-alone net profit at Rs 2,496 crore for the September 2016 quarter compared to Rs 3,039 crore in the year-ago period. According a company statement, its total income rose seven per cent to Rs 19,588 crore compared to Rs 18,218 crore a year ago.

NTPC has a total installed capacity of 47,228 Mw. It generated 125 billion units during the second quarter of FY17 against 119 billion units last year. The company said NTPC’s coal stations achieved a plant load factor (PLF, or proportion of generation capacity utilisation) of 77.98 per cent against national PLF of 59.04 per cent.

The company also incurred an outgo of Rs 4.43 crore due to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission ruling on changing incentive schemes for power generation companies. Under the tariff guidelines of the Commission, generation companies would earn incentives based on PLF they maintain at their power plants and not on plant availability factor.

The company said it benefitted from tax refunds and other receivables during the second quarter of the current financial year. “Revenue from electricity generation increased to Rs 19,491.54 crore in the quarter under review, compared to Rs 17,993.50 crore in same period last year,” it added.

According to a post-result report of Emkay Global Financial Services, NTPC's generation during July-September 2016 was flat at 61 billion units, while realisation increased three per cent over last year to Rs 3.4 a unit. The rise in tariff was mainly due to hike in coal cess, railway freight and increase in fuel price by Coal India during May 2016. This led to a 22-paise rise in fuel cost/unit.

“This was, however, partially offset by fuel cost saving by coal rationalisation by NTPC. Consequently, net revenue (after adjustments of prior period sales and income tax adjustments) increased four per cent year-on-year to Rs 19,110 crore in Q2FY17 (above our estimate of Rs 18,150 crore),” it added.

It said fall in PLF impacted the incentive income during the quarter, which led to a 8.1 per cent y-o-y decline in adjusted profit after (PAT) tax to Rs 2,400 crore. PAT was also impacted due to 26.1 per cent decline in other income to Rs 350 crore. “Adjusted PAT was, however, marginally above the estimate of Rs 2,320 crore for the quarter.”

NTPC Limited