Mumbai, May 17 :     Signalling a smart turnaround in its fortunes, Tata Iron and Steel Company (Tisco) today unveiled a better-than-expected 50 per cent surge in its net profit for 1999-2000 at Rs 422.59 crore. The gains came on the back of a 10 per cent increase in sales at Rs 6,890.87 crore. Basking in the glow of the sparkling results, company managing director J J Irani told a press conference that better numbers were the result of cost reductions, value added items, higher productivity and firm international prices. 'Those who are efficient and controlled costs will survive in the steel industry. After the liberalisation of the economy, the cycle that exists in this industry the world over has started affecting us,' he said. The annual turnaround was helped by a strong performance in the last quarter, facilitated by increased production at its hot-strip plant, seasonal increases in demand and buoyant international prices. An analyst affiliated to a local brokerage said the profits were higher than his forecast of Rs 350 crore. According to him, much of the company's problems in the past were rooted in domestic over-capacity, price cutting, increased administered costs of essential services such as power and railways, and the lack of government spending. He made it clear that his company would reduce the number of its workers to 48,000 by offering early separation schemes to 4,000 employees. Irani claimed that the 78,699 workers in 1993 has been brought down to 52,167 in 1999-2000. Tisco is planning to restructure its tubes business, but Irani denied there were plans to divest the business. The board of the steel major met here today but decided not to recommend a final dividend given that a 40 per cent interim payout has already been announced earlier for 1999-2000. The net profit includes an extra-ordinary income from the sale of net assets of the company's cement division to Lafarge for Rs 125.26 crore and profits from the sale of long term investments worth Rs 10.22 crore, Tisco said in a statement. The company incurred an extraordinary expense of Rs 157.99 crore on account of employee separation costs, up from Rs 115.46 crore last year. Similarly, interest costs were also high at Rs 359.96 crore as against Rs 301.56 crore in the previous year. Production jumped 7 per cent to 32,62,000 tonnes while the volume of sales swelled 9 per cent to 32,10,000 tonnes.