15 Himachal PSUs lose Rs 1,124 crore

The Himachal Pradesh government seems to be in no mood to carry out reforms of its loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs).The losses of PSUs continue to mount and have now touched Rs 1,124.39 crore, a latest government report says.

According to the report of the state government presented in the House earlier this week (March 9), of the 23 PSUs 15 are running into losses. The cumulative losses of Rs 1,124.39 crore published in the report are till March 2010. The previous year the losses were Rs 936 crore.

The state-run Himachal road transport corporation leads the pack of loss making PSUs with a cumulative loss of almost Rs 550 crore.

The state electricity board loss is over Rs 383 crore, followed by the state financial corporation with Rs 102 crore.

Agro packaging India has lost Rs 76 crore, HPMC Rs 53 crore and the state forest corporation cumultive loss is almost Rs 41 crore.

With a boom in the construction sector, the Himachal Housing and Urban Development Authority tops the list of profit-making PSUs with a cumulative profit of Rs 121 crore followed by the state civil supplies corporation with Rs 17.51 crore profit

The total stake of the state government in PSUs rose sharply from Rs 929 crore to Rs 1,792 crore in one year. All the 23 PSUs employ 43,449 people, the report says.