Petronet Q1 results: Net profit slips 7% to Rs 520 crore

New Delhi: Petronet LNG’s quarterly profit fell 7% to Rs 520 crore as demand contracted during the lockdown.

The fall in profit during the June quarter was partly offset by a switch to a lower tax regime. Revenue during the quarter fell 43% from a year earlier to Rs 4,952 crore. “Dahej regas charge rise by 3% year-on-year and fall in tax rate capped earnings fall,” brokerage ICICI Securities said in a note.

Petronet, which operates two regasification terminals at Dahej in Gujarat and Kochi in Kerala, switched over to a new tax regime last year, resulting in lower charges. Its liability went down to Rs 176 crore in the April-June quarter from Rs 277 core in the year-ago period.

Operations at both terminals are back to pre-Covid levels, Petronet managing director Prabhat Singh said. Dahej is functioning at about 102% and Kochi at 16% capacity utilisation. “The natural gas demand has got redistributed,” Singh said, adding that city gas distributors were still drawing less than what they did before the onset of the pandemic but new demand has come from the industrial segment resulting in recovery of overall demand.