The company has recorded a gross turnover of Rs 25,650 crore in 1998-99, showing an increase of 23.9 per cent over the previous year, it said. During the year, the performance of the refinery was the highest ever registering a throughput of 8.94 million tonnes (mt) as against 7.94 mt during 1997-98. The sales increased to 17.5 mt from 16.37 mt during the previous year, representing a growth of 6.9 per cent.

The major contributing factors to the increase in profits were the abolition of the retention pricing concept for the refining sector as well as increased crude throughput. The company said the net sales had increased by 82.5 per cent to Rs 21,599.8 crore in 1998-99 as against Rs 11,833 crore in theprevious year.

The company's earning per share (EPS) for the year was Rs 46.75 as compared to Rs 35.51 for the previous year, showing a growth of 32 per cent. Among the major products, LPG recorded an 11.2 per cent increase in sales, motor spirit 7.8 per cent, high speed diesel 4.8 per cent, superior kerosene oil 8.6 per cent and lubricants 16.2 per cent.

Net sales during the fourth quarter of 1998-99 rose by a whopping 94 per cent to Rs 6,208 crore from Rs 3,198.9 crore in the corresponding period the previous year. BPCL said it was in an advanced stage of achieving Y2K compliance for all its internal operations and added that the project was expected to be completed by September.

The company said it was carrying a major restructuring programme and a number of initiatives have already been undertaken to improve response time and provide greater customer focus.