Telco Posts Rs 500 Crore Loss

Tata Engineering has posted a higher-than-expected loss of Rs 500.34 crore for the 2000-01 fiscal against a Rs 71.2 crore profit in the previous year. In the fourth quarter, losses increased to Rs 147 crore, the highest in any of the quarters.

Net sales declined 7.89 per cent to Rs 8,095 crore from Rs 8,789.91 crore, which were driven by a 19.82 per cent drop in mainline commercial vehicles sales and a 13.15 per cent decline in passenger car and utility vehicle sales.

The company attributed the poor performance to the continuing economic slowdown, combined with the surge in diesel prices and the rationalisation of sales tax which affected vehicle sales.

Losses were higher than the analysts