NTC's 22 mills recorded losses of Rs 126 crore last fiscal

Losses of 22 mills of the National Textiles Corporation (NTC) have risen more than 11-fold to Rs 126.05 crore in 2011-12 compared to Rs 11.10 crore in the previous year.

"Problems have been faced in optimum capacity utilisation of the mills on account of the acute power cut in Tamil Nadu where 7 mills are located, besides labour shortage," Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

In 2011-12, NTC and the entire textiles industry faced acute price volatility and supply side disruptions in raw-cotton which aggravated its losses, she added.

The Minister, however said, several steps were taken by the company to tackle the problems.

As per the Revival Scheme approved by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), the state-owned NTC has modernised its mills and invested Rs 1,169 crores towards this end till date, Lakshmi said.

NTC is a conglomeration of textiles mills.

Referring to the data, Lakshmi said after closing 11 NTC mills in the last three years, 8,040 employees have been covered under the Modified Voluntary Retirement Scheme and paid compensation worth Rs 285 crores.