Maruti''s after-tax profit at Rs 146.4 crore; PBT up 138.4%

New Delhi: Maruti Udyog, India's leading carmaker, recorded an after-tax profit of Rs 146.4 crore on a turnover of Rs 9,426 crore in 2002-03 as against the 2001-02 figures of Rs 104.5 crore and Rs 9,398.9 crore, respectively. The before tax profit for the last fiscal is Rs 282.1 crore as against Rs 118.3 crore posted during 2001-02.

Maruti sold 3,62,426 vehicle units during the year, a growth of about 2.8 per cent over 2001-02. The company exported 32,240 units for the period under review. The growth in net profit was brought about by measures to enhance productivity and reduce costs across the company.

During the year, Maruti engineers worked closely with component suppliers, leading to a reduction in cost of components. The localisation levels for components also went up and helped in reducing costs. The company was able to increase productivity in in-house manufacturing and at vendors' facilities.

Both Maruti and the component suppliers achieved major success in value analysis and value engineering efforts, and thereby reduced the costs of producing a component without changing its functional utility. As a result of these initiatives, the company's expenditure on consumption (of raw materials, components and stores) was lower by Rs 79.7 crore over 2001-02.

Employee costs went down by Rs 15.3 crore (6.7 per cent) over 2001-02, primarily because of the reduction in the number of employees as a result of the voluntary retirement scheme in fiscal 2001-02. The depreciation provision was Rs 322.1 crore, a reduction of 6.1 per cent compared to the previous fiscal.