The Hindu Business Line : Bengal PSU energy units pile up Rs 999-cr losses

WITH a total loss of Rs 999.15 crore in a single year, the energy companies have emerged as the biggest loss-making entities among state - run units in West Bengal.

Official statistics show that only one of the three state-owned power utilities - West Bengal Power Development Corporation in the State reported a profit in 2002-03.

The electricity board's loss for the year stood at Rs 915.28 crore with its accumulated losses touching Rs 4,832.15 crore. The WBSEB was also the biggest employer, with 33,000 employees on its rolls. The Durgapur Projects Ltd, which also produces coke, had also suffered huge losses - to the tune of Rs 74.3 crore in 2002-03.

The aggregate loss of the public undertakings whose results have been reviewed in the study, stood at Rs 1443.91 crore in 2002-03 with the transport sector companies coming second in terms of a dismal financial performance.

Not a single one of them is in the black with the Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC), which runs a fleet of buses in the city and its suburbs, toting up a loss of Rs 103.9 crore. The CSTC has on its rolls 8,647 employees.

Only 13 of the 66 companies whose financial results have been reviewed in the report have shown profits with the service sector companies putting up the best show. There were 21 companies in this category whose Rs 23 crore profit has nearly wiped out the Rs 23.97 crore loss shown by this segment during the year.

The outfits doing well are Mackintosh Burn - a civil construction company, the West Bengal Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development and Finance Corporation, West Bengal State Leather Industries Development Corporation and the West Bengal Seed Development Corporation. The two industry promotion agencies have also made profits.

The state-run engineering companies many of whom are facing divestment now are steeped in losses barring the West Bengal Electronic Industry Development Corporation. The total loss made by these entities stood at Rs 79.02 crore in 2002-03.

Industry department sources admitted that the popular perception was that public sector was synonymous with inefficiency. They noted that in an environment where all economic activities were determined by market forces, it would be difficult to sustain, even with the State's intervention, companies which are not commercially viable.

It is under this circumstance that the State Government had undertaken a pilot project to determine the viability of 16 loss-making industrial units under its control.

While two units were proposed to be closed down as they were not viable (the 738 employees were paid off with assistance from the UK agency DFID), 14 were identified for revival. Of these, four were to be done by the State Government.

PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed by the State Government as advisors to the process of restructuring.

Altogether 37 qualified interested parties have been shortlisted and the state industry department was now interacting with them for entering into joint ventures.