Essar Energy sees pre-tax loss during 15 months

NEW DELHI: Essar Energy plc has registered pre-tax loss of $1.14 billion for 15 months until March 31 due to the Supreme Court decision on payment of domestic sales tax.

Essar Energy, which revised its accounting period during the year, stated that the loss as against a pre-tax profit of $365.5 million during the 12 months to December 31, 2010.

During the early part of this year, Supreme Court said that the London-based company was liable to pay $1.2 billion in taxes.

Naresh Nayyar, Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are now very much an operational energy business, with many construction projects completed and our capex investment programme having peaked. The expansion of our Vadinar refinery (from 375,000 barrels per day to 405,000 bpd) has been very successful, putting the plant into a league with the best in the world where it can produce high value fuels from lower cost, ultra heavy crudes. “