Private manufacturers see 75% surge in Q1 sales: RBI

Mumbai: Sales of 1,647 manufacturing companies recorded extraordinarily high growth of 75 per cent in the first quarter of financial year 2021-22 on a year-on-year basis to Rs 7.02 lakh crore, aided by a very low base of last year. The sales of these companies had declined by 41 per cent in Q1FY21 to Rs 3.97 lakh crore, the Reserve Bank of India said on Monday.

The numbers reflect the pandemic impact on operations, said the central bank. All the major sectors recorded high growth during the quarter. The RBI released data on the performance of the private corporate sector during the first quarter of 2021-22, drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,610 listed non-government, non-financial companies.

According to sector wise performance of listed non-government, non-financial companies, the sales growth of information technology sector companies, on a  year-on-year (YoY) basis, accelerated to 17.5 per cent in Q1 of FY22 to Rs 1.13 lakh crore. The companies had grown 3.2 per cent at Rs 97,751 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year, the data showed.

Sales of non-IT services companies also surged in Q1FY22 on a YoY basis, but the revenues of telecom companies within this group declined. The non-IT companies had reported 39 per cent growth in sales to Rs 93,318 crore in Q1FY22 compared to a decline of 41 per cent to Rs 61,753 crore in the year-ago period.

Manufacturing companies increased their expenditure on raw materials during Q1 in tandem with the rise in sales. Also, staff cost growth, on a YoY basis, accelerated for all sectors during Q1.

At the same time, the operating profits of manufacturing as well as services sector companies, both IT and non-IT, recorded high growth in line with the rise in sales.
The operating profits of manufacturing grew 139 per cent to Rs 1.26 lakh crore in Q1 FY22 compared to a 49 per cent drop at Rs 51,719 crore YoY. Likewise, the operating profit of Services (non-IT companies) grew 44.1 per cent to Rs  15,166 crore while for the IT companies the operating profit grew 21.2 per cent to Rs 29,897 crore in Q1 FY22.