PSUs continue to bleed the State

Thiruvananthapuram: Public Sector units (PSUs) continued to bleed the government during the year ending March 31, 2015, report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India presented to the Assembly show.

An analysis of the latest finalised accounts of all working PSUs in the State by the Auditor revealed that 50 PSUs earned profit of RS. 498.47 crore in total while 53 PSUs incurred loss of Rs. 889.89 crore. Four working PSUs made no profit or loss while five had not finalised their accounts till September 2015.

The major contributors to profit were State Electricity Board (Rs. 140.42 crore,  Beverages (Manufacturing and Marketing) Corporation (Rs. 123.54 crore), Financial Enterprises (Rs. 69.90 crore) and Industrial Development Corporation (Rs. 30.49 crore). Major loss makers were State Road Transport Corporation (508.22 crore), Cashew Development Corporation (127.95 crore) and Civil Supplies Corporation (Rs. 89.11 crore).

Implementation of Greenfield projects by five PSUs was beset with poor planning and execution of projects. That resulted in loss of Rs. 11.59 crore. Failure of Kerala Agro MAchiner Corporation to ensure procurement of material at competitive rate resulted in extra expenditure of Rs. 61.28 crore.

Non-compliance to the provisions of the Income Tax Act by PSUs revealed instances of delay in submission of tax returns, non-payment of required amount of advance tax and consequent payment of interest, etc., to the tune of Rs. 24.57 crore.

Failure of Kerala State Mineral Development Corporation Limited to provide adequate security and storage for excavated sand resulted in loss of sand worth Rs. 6.42 crore and consequent loss of revenue to Government.

Failure of Kerala State Electricity Board Limited to execute agreement with Asianet and other cable TV operators resulted in loss of Rs. 14.70 crore and short collection of service tax of Rs. 17.5 crore.

Failure of Kerala State Beverages (Manufacturing & Marketing) Corporation Limited in timely passing on the incidence of additional tax (i.e. medical cess) to consumers resulted in payment of tax Rs. 2.10 crore. Besides, delay in payment of medical cess resulted in avoidable payment of interest of Rs. 0. 42 crore.

Kerala State Road Transport Corporation made irregular payment of performance allowance of Rs. 3.24 crore in violation Government Order, the report said.