ITC first-quarter profit rises 10 percent, beats estimates

(Reuters) - India's biggest cigarette maker ITC Ltd posted a better-than-expected 10 percent rise in first-quarter profit on Thursday, as the company paid a significantly lower excise duty, a tax on manufactured goods.

Profit rose to 28.19 billion rupees ($410.6 million) in the quarter ended June 30, from 25.61 billion rupees in the year ago quarter, the company said.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 27.92 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Quarterly revenue from operations came in at 108.75 billion rupees. The company had reported revenue from operations of 138 billion rupees in the year-ago period. ITC said the figures for revenue from operations were not comparable year-on-year because of the introduction of the nation-wide Goods and Services Tax on July 1, 2017.

Excise duty paid during the quarter fell to 1.68 billion rupees from 38.46 billion rupees a year ago.

($1 = 68.6600 Indian rupees)

(Reporting By Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)