Working Capital Management: An Essential Tool of Business Finance - A Case Study of National Plastic Industries Limited (NPIL)

Abstract

Working capital is an integral part of overall business finance for the smooth operations of a business enterprise. An optimal management of working capital is one of the preconditions for the success of an enterprise. Efficient management of working capital ensures that the business operating cycle keeps moving without any hurdles in terms of payment of liabilities and procurement of raw materials. Efficient management of working capital means management of various components of working capital in such a way that adequate amount of working capital and liquidity is maintained for smooth running of an enterprise. The flow of money gets choked, the supplies are interrupted and payments are delayed in the event of inefficient management of working capital. While inadequate working capital has the potential to disrupt production or sales operation and is a disastrous, excessive working capital has an adverse impact on profitability and is a criminal waste. Management of working capital is regarded as an essential tool of business finance focusing on maintaining optimum levels of both the components viz. current assets and current liabilities. Thus there is an imperative need to manage working capital effectively. In this study, we have selected National Plastic Industries Limited as a sample and taken the financial data for the period of five years from 2006-07 to 2010-11 and studied the effect of different components of working capital.