38 PSUs incur losses of more than Rs 2,167 crore

Kolkata, Apr 9 (UNI) More than Rs 2,167 crore losses have been incurred by 38 Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) financed by the West Bengal government in the fiscal 2006-07.

The Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report for the fiscal 2006-07 stated that of the 66 PSUs funded by the state government, as many as 31 government companies and seven statuory corporations were incurring huge losses.

Moreover, of the 31 loss-incurring working companies, 29 had accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 2,165.06 crore, which exceeded their aggregate paid up capital of Rs 242.68 crore, the CAG report, tabled recently in the Assembly, stated.

Similarly, of the seven loss-incurring statuory corporations, five had accumulated losses aggregating Rs 6,892.04 crore which exceeded their aggregate paid up capital of Rs 1,469.92 crore by nearly five times.

Only 23 working government companies managed to earn profits, out of which 13 companies earned an aggregate profit of Rs 315.38 crore while 10 earned Rs 439.54 crore profits.

However, only 18 companies eaned profit successively for two or more years and three companies declared dividend of Rs 1.24 crore for the years 2005-06 and 2006-07 as the state government had not formulated any policy for payment of minimum dividend.

Though three statuory corporations earned profit successively for two or more years, only the West Bengal Financial Corporation, which earned Rs 67.80 lakh profit, declared dividend of Rs 19.62 lakh for the year 2006-07.

Consequently, despite poor performance and complete erosion of their paid up capital, the state government continued to provide financial support to these PSUs in the form of contribution towards equity, further grant of loans, conversion of loans into equity ad subsidy.

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