ONGC acting CMD R.S. Sharma in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI)

New Delhi, June 26: ONGC has reported an 11 per cent rise in earnings at Rs 14,431 crore for fiscal ended March 31, 2006 against Rs 12,983 crore in the previous year.

It has announced a 450 per cent dividend for 2005-06, the highest ever from an Indian company in absolute terms. ONGC will shell out Rs 6,417 crore towards the dividend payment. On a face value of Rs 10 per share, the dividend works out to Rs 45 per share.

Acting chairman R.S. Sharma said the net profit of the group, including subsidiaries ONGC-Videsh and MRPL, in 2005-06 stood at Rs 15,398 crore. ONGC?s net worth has gone up to Rs 58,782 crore.

The turnover of the group rose 19.4 per cent to Rs 74,312 crore from Rs 62,224 crore in 2004-05.

He added that the company?s net profit would have gone up by another Rs 7,210 crore, if it did not have to share the subsidy burden for cooking gas and kerosene.

Due to the subsidy burden, ONGC had to sell its crude to public sector oil companies at a discounted price of $42.34 per barrel while the market price would have been $59.66 per barrel.

Also, the company has to sell natural gas at a low price. While private companies are selling natural gas at $4.75 per million British thermal units (Btu), ONGC is charging only $1.75 per million Btu so that power and fertiliser can be produced at a lower cost.

ONGC will invest over Rs 12,000 crore for oil exploration and production in the country in 2006-07.

NIIT net up

NIIT Technologies Ltd has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 19.2 crore for the January-March quarter against Rs 16.9 crore in the same period a year ago. Consolidated revenues rose 21 per cent to Rs 166.2 crore.

During 2005-06, consolidated revenue grew 12 per cent at Rs 607.5 crore compared with Rs 543.2 crore in the previous fiscal. The board has announced an enhanced dividend of 60 per cent for the year.