Ashok Leyland expects to save Rs 30-35 crore this year.

(From Business Line)

CHENNAI, Dec. 17. ASHOK Leyland has been in the news recently, following its announcement to extinguish certain amortised expenditure against the balance in the Share Premium Account. Also, in the first half of the current year, the company managed to shave about Rs 60 crore off its inventories. It was also said that the company's priorities were to get the e-commerce initiatives going and get a better rating from the rating agencies.

Clearly, the finance department of the company is pretty much in the vanguard of things, as the company drives through a tough market. Ashok Leyland's Executive Director-Finance, Mr T. Ananthanarayanan, spoke to Business Line about some of the issues relating to finance.

Excerpts from the interview

Last week you announced your proposal to set off Rs 160 crore (representing some deferred revenue expenditure (DRE) and diminution in the value of fixed assets and investments) against the balance in the Share Premium Account. Is there are significance to the timing of this move? Could you not have done this, for example, earlier this year?

The timing is very appropriate. First, we were looking at the deferred …