Mumbai: Addressing the shareholders at its 27^th annual general meeting held at Narmadanagar, Bharuch, today, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers Company (GNFC) chairman P K Laheri said the company has registered the highest-ever profit before tax of Rs 136 crore during the financial year 2002-03 against Rs 118.19 recorded last year.

The sales turnover of the company''s own products is higher at Rs 1,403.73 crore as compared to Rs 1,263.71 crore for the last year. As a result, although, the company did not undertake trading of imported urea during the year due to drought conditions, it has achieved a sales turnover of Rs 1,464 crore, which is only marginally lower compared to the previous year.

The chairman mentioned that the company had established 62 new records of production and sales during this financial year. As per the recommendation of the board, the shareholders approved a dividend of 25 per cent during the AGM.

Sharing the information on the capacity utilisation of the plants, Laheri said that both the ammonia and urea plants achieved more than 100-per cent capacity utilisation for the 12^th year in succession. The methanol-1 plant produced 38,889 MTs of methanol registering the highest ever capacity utilisation of 194 per cent. The formic acid plant produced 11,104 MTs of formic acid and the acetic acid plant produced 97,016 MTs of acetic acid, registering the highest-ever capacity utilisation of 222 per cent and 137 per cent, respectively.