BENGALURU - Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta Ltd reported a near 41% drop in third-quarter profit on Friday, hit by a fall in commodity prices.

The Anil Agarwal-led firm's consolidated net profit fell to 24.64 billion rupees ($302.33 million) for the quarter ended Dec. 31 from 41.64 billion a year earlier, Vedanta said in an exchange filing.

Analysts had, on average, expected a profit of 20.67 billion rupees ($253.58 million), according to Refinitiv IBES data.

Prices of zinc, aluminium have fallen from their peaks by over 15% in 2022 from a year earlier, while total expenses have surged 17%, Vedanta said.

Vedanta's results continue to be impacted by the Indian government's windfall tax on crude oil.

For the December quarter, the company logged a loss of 3.33 billion rupees due to the windfall tax even though the government had significantly cut levies.

The conglomerate's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation fell by 35.1% year-on-year.

Aluminium production and refined metal production dropped 2% each.

The metals & mining major's revenue was flat at 336.91 billion rupees from a year ago.

Last week, Hindustan Zinc, owned by Vedanta Group, reported a fall in quarterly profit, hit by lower zinc prices and silver production. ($1 = 81.5010 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru)