Gujarat PSU lost Rs 4,216 crore in three years: CAG

GANDHINAGAR: The state government has always tomtommed its efforts in turning sick public sector units ( PSU) into profitable ventures. A review of three years of CAG reports paints a different picture. During this period, state PSUs incurred losses worth Rs 4216.53 crore and infructuous investment of Rs 300.98 crore, which were controllable with better management.

The aggregate accumulated profits of all 60 PSUs stood at Rs 169.34 crore as per their latest finalized accounts as on March 31, 2011.

List of loss-making companies include Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (Rs 159.74 crore), Gujarat State Financial Corporation (Rs 156.91 crore) and Alcock Ashdown Limited (Rs 131.44 crore).

The CAG report also says four power distribution companies or DISCOMs in Gujarat failed to utilize central funds worth Rs 135.33 crore till March 2011. It further says the increase in the distribution capacity during 2006-11 could not match the pace of growth in consumer demand in all the DISCOMs as a whole as well as in Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Limited (DGVCL) and Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited ( PGVCL).

Improper management of feeders in three divisions caused losses of Rs 42.08 crore. The yet-to-be-tabled CAG report says state-owned ship-building company Alcock Ashdown (Gujarat) Limited is exposed to probable losses worth Rs 96.42 crore by imprudently accepting a contract. Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited incurred avoidable expenditure of Rs 9.95 crore due to imprudent selection of a firm and noncommissioning of ash collection system.

Times View

Chief minister Narendra Modi has a relatively clean image when it comes to political corruption. It is another matter that his government has cleverly avoided or actively resisted the appointment of a Lokayukta for the last over seven years. In such a situation, the Comptroller and Auditor General's reports are the only way to pin-point financial irregularities. It has been an unhealthy practice of the present state government to submit the CAG report only on the last day of the state assembly. A clean government should have nothing to hide. These deliberate attempts to avoid a free debate on the subject only evokes suspicion.