J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd clarifies on article published in TOI

J. Kumar Infraprojects Limited (JKIL), a pure play EPC company having a niche in construction of Urban Infra Projects including Metros, Flyover, bridges etc. have clarified regarding News Article in Times of India dated May 01, 2021.

Clarification in respect to News Article published in TOI dated 01.05.2021

- MMRDA had estimated to complete trial runs in the next 4-5 months for Metro 2A and 7. But sources said labourers have gone on strike as wages to the tune of ₹ 2 crore has not been paid to labour contractor for Metro 2A package. Even for lines 6, Line 7 and Line 9, the contractor owes dues to the tune of ₹ 5.5 crore

Our response: We have a track record of timely payments to all our vendors including labour contractors. In fact during the Covid pandemic we have further accelerated the payout to the extent possible to help the labour contractors. We engage with large number of contractors across our project sites and have been clearing the dues in normal course.

We wish to clarify that execution is happening at all the Metro sites and there is no labour strike at any of those sites. As regards Labour Contractors dues, the issue has arisen because 2 labour contractors failed to deposit the GST (approx. ₹ 1.55 crore) collected from us to the government despite repeated reminders. Hence, we had withheld their amount of around ₹ 2.5 crore and have been following up with them with a request to deposit the GST for ensuring compliance.

We have now received a request from said labour contractors to directly deposit GST in their name and simultaneously, we have also released their balance payment of around ₹ 0.95 crore.

- Metro Projects, including Metro 2A (Dahisar-DN Nagar) which were delayed due to Covidinduced lockdown, may face further time-overruns as labourers have gone on strike over non-payment of wages by J.Kumar Infraprojects Ltd. led joint venture.

Our response: We wish to clarify that execution is happening at all our Metro sites and there is no labour strike at any of those sites. Further, workers provided by the same labour contractors are working at various Metro Sites.

We have a cordial working relationship with all our labour contractors, most of which are associated with us since long time. The labour contractors in question are working with us since last 4-5 years.

Further, we wish to submit following further information:

- The Company is receiving regular payment from all its clients and we are also making payments to our vendors on time.

- The Company is having sufficient liquidity position and there has been continuous reduction in utilisation of our cash credit facilities as on date. Despite challenging environment due to the pandemic, we were able to maintain Net Working Capital at comfortable levels.

- Currently, we have enough unutilized working capital facilities.

- Our Total Order book as on December 31, 2020 stood at ₹ 10,917 cr. The order book includes Metro projects (elevated and underground) contributing ~ 51%, while Flyover, Bridges & Roads projects contributes ~49%.

- Awarded project by GMRC worth ₹ 942 cr during Q4 FY21 for design, construction and completion of underground stations and tunnel for Surat Metro.

Shares of J.KUMAR INFRAPROJECTS LTD. was last trading in BSE at Rs.182.1 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 183.4. The total number of shares traded during the day was 26296 in over 720 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 187.05 and intraday low of 182.05. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 4852590.

Source : Equity Bulls

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