bengaluru jan 27 reuters  indian metalstooil conglomerate vedanta ltd vdanns reported a near 41 drop in thirdquarter profit on friday hit by a fall in commodity prices the anil agarwalled firms consolidated net profit fell to 2464 billion rupees 30233 million for the quarter ended dec 31 from 4164 billion a year earlier vedanta said in an exchange filing analysts had on average expected a profit of 2067 billion rupees 25358 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 vedantas results continue to be impacted by the indian governments windfall tax on crude oil for the december quarter the company logged a loss of 333 billion rupees due to the windfall tax even though the government had significantly cut levies the conglomerates earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortisation fell by 351 yearonyear the metals  mining majors revenue was flat at 33691 billion rupees from a year ago last week hindustan zinc hzncns owned by vedanta group reported a fall in quarterly profit hit by lower zinc prices and silver production