The National Aluminium Company Ltd has earned a profit after tax of Rs 520.92 crore (Rs 5,209.2 million) during 2002-03, according to the company's chairman-cum-managing director C Venkataramana.

The company's shareholders had approved a dividend of 60 per cent for the fiscal on the paid up capital of Rs 644.31 crore (Rs 6,443.1 million) which amounted to Rs 386.59 crore (Rs 3,865.9 million), he told reporters in Bhubaneswar on Monday night.

In addition, Nalco would pay Rs 49.53 crore (Rs 495.3 million) towards dividend tax, he said, adding the dividend and dividend tax would be 84 per cent of the profit after tax.

Nalco, which has been in the news after the government decided to divest the company, was contemplating another round of capacity expansion involving further investment of Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion).

The fresh expansion programme envisaged raising the capacity of bauxite mines to 63 lakh tonnes, alumina capacity to 21 lakh tonnes, aluminium capacity to 4.60 lakh tonnes and installed capacity of the captive power plant to 1200 mw, Venkataramana said.

"We expect to have the clearance in six months time," he said, adding after expansion of the alumina capacity, the company was keen to set up toll smelting of alumina into metal by suitable conversion arrangements with overseas smelters.