ROURKELA: BISRA Stone Lime Company Limited (BSLC), a mining PSU at Birmitrapur in Sundargarh district, which was once on the verge of closure, is all set to make profit for the fourth consecutive time, this year.
A subsidiary of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), BSLC is likely to end up with Profit After Tax (PAT) between Rs 13 crore and Rs 14 crore in the current financial year 2023-24.
After over two decades of severe financial crunch including continuous losses from 2010 and early 2020, the turnaround of BSLC from August 2020 has been nothing short of phenomenal and extraordinary.
As per reliable sources, the mining company’s fortunes began rising with increase in dispatch of dolomite and limestone from August 2020 further helping it to achieve PAT of Rs 6.91 crore in 2020-21. Subsequently, BSLC’s profit for 2021-22 rose to Rs 7.9 crore followed by Rs 11 crore in 2022-23. “The company is set to report minimum PAT figure of over Rs 13 crore in 2023-24,” sources said adding, the projected dispatch target for 2023-24 is around 10.25 lakh tonne.
A senior official, requesting anonymity, said the BSLC could perform much better but unable to do so due to unavailability of required railway rakes throughout the year. Sharing an instance, he said, the company needed 23 rakes in February but could get only 16.
“Due to unavailability of rakes, BSLC is unable to increase its annual dispatch target. The company was able to get 40 rakes in a month only once in 2021,” he informed adding, last month officials of the company visited general manager of South Eastern Railway (SER) at Kolkata and other officials requesting them to provide more rakes. Only after that, rake availability improved in March as compared to February, he said.
Sources said BSLC dispatches over 80 per cent of blast furnace (BF) grade dolomite to SAIL plants - RSP, BSP, DSP and IISCO - and RINL. While limestone is largely procured by JSW Cement and RINL, the company plans to increase its supply by road. Incidentally, the Steel Ministry’s direct intervention in 2020 forcing SAIL and RINL to buy from BSLC, was instrumental in revival of the company, they added.
The company, however, has to go a long way as its negative net worth still lies at around Rs 118 crore including arrears of employees. Few days back, a prominent trade union of BSLC demanded to clear the old dues of workers. Management sources said around Rs 6 crore has been paid against gratuity dues pending from 2012 while unpaid salary of 22 months have been brought down to 16 months. The company expects to clear all dues gradually, they said.