Govt asks defaulting PSUs to pay up or sell land
The Centre has asked PSUs to transfer their surplus land to state governments and other agencies if they are unable to pay taxes and utility bills.
By Gunjan Pradhan Sinha, TNN |
NEW DELHI: The government is back to the era of barter trading when it comes to recovering dues from sick public sector undertakings (PSUs). The Centre has asked PSUs to transfer their surplus land to state governments and other agencies if they are unable to pay taxes and utility bills.
Public sector Hindustan Engineering Corporation (HEC) has been asked to transfer land worth Rs 850 crore in lieu of their unpaid bills under various heads, sources in the government said. The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) has already approved the proposal.
Electricity bill alone amounts to over Rs 500 crore. The PSU has been asked to transfer commensurate land to the Jharkhand State Electricity Board. The proposal has been cleared by the Cabinet. A similar proposal to sell land for settling bank dues has been permitted for Praga Tools by the cabinet. The PSU has a negative net worth of Rs 278 crore and losses of around Rs 310 crore.
HEC has also been permitted to settle dues worth Rs 73 crore to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) by again transferring land worth the same amount. The land will directly be transferred to the organisation in lieu of its services, sources said.
The PSU will also transfer its residential and non-residential buildings, including a school and a hospital, to the state of Jharkhand to raise Rs 330 crore for capital expenditure and settlement of dues to the State Bank of India.
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The money raised will also be used for settling sales tax dues, employees’ salary and repayment of loans of over Rs 100 crore. The buildings that have been slated for transfer are already on rent with the state government. HEC has a negative net worth of Rs 1,623 crore.Download
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