Vedanta on Friday reported a 40.8 per cent drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,464 crore in the quarter ended December 31 on the back of higher input cost and windfall tax.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 4,164 crore in the year-ago period.

However, the consolidated income of the company increased marginally by 0.4 percent to Rs 34,818 crore from Rs34,674 crore a year ago.

Consolidated expenses increased to Rs 31,327 crore from Rs 26,777 crore a year ago. There has been an impact of Rs 333 crore due to the introduction of windfall tax in July.

In a conference call, the Vedanta group CFO Ajay Goelsaid, “If you look at Q2 over Q3our PAT has increased by 15per cent.”

Commenting on Vedanta’s board approval to sell the international zinc business to Hindustan Zinc, the company’s chief executive officer Sunil Duggal said: “The objective of this merger is to create a winning combination where the fundamental of both the companies is so great...The R&R of our Zinc International is more than HindustanZinc so there is great potential there.”