Mumbai, Jan 17 : FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) on Wednesday reported a surge of almost 28 per cent in profit after tax (PAT) for the third quarter (Q3) ended on December 31, 2017.
The company's PAT for Q3 stood at Rs 1,326 crore -- up 27.74 per cent -- as compared to Rs 1,038 crore reported during the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.
According to the company, the total income during the quarter rose by 4.07 per cent to Rs 8,742 crore from Rs 8,400 crore reported during the same period of 2016-17.
"Effective November 15, Goods and Services Tax rates were reduced for some of our categories from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. While the implementation of this change was initiated immediately, it was not possible to pass on the entire benefit of this rate reduction on some of the pipeline stocks during the transition," the company said in a statement.
"An estimated value of Rs 119 crore was pro-actively disclosed to the CBEC (Central Board of Excise and Customs) on this count and we have offered to pay this amount suo motu to the government. This amount is not recognised as revenue and is accounted as a liability as on December 31, 2017," it added.
Commenting on the performance for the quarter, HUL Chairman Harish Manwani said: "We remain positive about the mid-term outlook of the industry and will continue to invest strongly in our core brands and developing categories of the future.
"There are early signs of commodity cost inflation and we will further sharpen our focus on cost effectiveness programmes and manage our business dynamically for competitiveness and sustained profitability," he added.
On Wednesday, the company's scrip on the BSE closed 0.68 per cent lower at Rs 1,371.85 per equity share.
