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A Tribune Special
Punjab PSUs: auditor pegs losses at Rs 5,815.33 cr
Maneesh Chhibber & Chitleen K. Sethi
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3
The Principal Accountant-General (Audit), Punjab, has come down heavily on the state government for its failure to control the mounting losses in various statutory boards and corporations.

In a communiqué to the state government, the Accountant-General has pointed out that 18 out of the 32 corporations and companies in which the state government is a majority shareholder are running in losses.

Till March 31, 2006, the government had pumped in a whopping Rs 3,718.86 crore in various corporations, while the 18 loss-making entities, with an aggregate investment of Rs 3,404.75 crore, had accumulated losses of over Rs 5,815.33 crore.

Most of the loss-making corporations are those that also figured in the report presented by the Punjab Disinvestment Commission, set up by the Amarinder government immediately after it came to power.

The commission, headed by former Chief Secretary P.H. Vaishnav, in its report, had recommended the winding up of many loss-making corporations as well as downsizing and restructuring many others.

However, the latest communiqué of the Principal Accountant-General, Punjab, indicates that the government did very little to follow up and take remedial measures as recommended by the commission.

According to sources, the Principal Accountant-General has asked the government to clarify why the losses happened and what steps have been taken to stem the slide.

In this regard, the Department of Finance’s disinvestment wing has written to Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of various loss-making Boards and Corporations, asking them to inform the Principal Accountant-General’s office the reason for the losses suffered by their respective entities.

As per the figures sent by the auditors to the government, the accumulated losses of the Punjab Financial Corporation (PFC) till March 31, 2004, were over Rs 237 crore, while those of the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) till March 31, 2005, were Rs 6.95 crore.

The PAIC, it may be remembered, is spearheading the much-touted diversification programme launched by the Punjab Government, which has yet to achieve results commensurate to its hype. Both the PFC and the PAIC were recommended to be wound up by the Disinvestment Commission, but that has not been done.

Similarly, the Accountant-General’s report pegs the accumulated losses of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) till March 31, 2005, at over Rs 4367 crore.

Among other corporations that have proved to be a major drain on the state exchequer are the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (loss Rs 316 crore), the Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation (Punsup) (loss Rs 438 crore) and Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (loss Rs 17.44 crore).

While the Disinvestment Commission had recommended the merger of the PSIDC with another government corporation to make it more viable, in the case of Punsup it had said it should be wound up unless the government and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) did not pay the dues owed to it.