Panel asks govt to take immediate steps to boost SAIL profitability

The Committee unhappy to note decline in profit by more than Rs 4,000 cr in 2013-14 as compared to that in 2009-10

Concerned over eroding bottomline of steel giant SAIL, a Parliamentary panel has said the government should take immediate steps to boost its profit while asking the PSU management to do some "serious brainstorming" to improve output.

"Steel Authority of India (SAIL) being a premier Steel PSU of the government, immediate steps should be taken to reverse declining trend of profitability," Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal and Steel has said in its report tabled in Parliament recently.

It said the Committee is "concerned to note the continuous declining trend in profitability of SAIL year after year" and "unhappy to note the decline in profit by more than Rs 4,000 crore in 2013-14 as compared to that in 2009-10."

The domestic steel giant has recorded a net profit of Rs 6,754 crore in 2009-10, which declined to Rs 4,905 crore in 2010-11, Rs 3,543 crore in 2011-12 and Rs 2,170 crore in 2012-13 before marginally rising to 2,616 crore in the last fiscal.

Stating that a serious brainstorming is required on the part of PSU management, the panel said even the massive capacity addition through modernisation and expansion programme of the country's largest steelmaker has not been translated into increase in profits for the company.

"SAIL management needs to rebuild a strategy to improve production, efficiency by giving attention to proper maintenance/repair and upkeep of equipments, introduction of new technology and cost cutting measures," it said.

The Panel report comes at a time when the Centre has decided to appoint a globally-renowned consultancy agency to carry out a "diagnostic study" for enhancing the maharatna's performance.

SAIL is enhancing its hot metal capacity to 23.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from about 14 MTPA now.

It has prepared a draft plan -Vision-2025 to raise its hot metal production capacity to about 50 MTPA by 2025 mainly through brownfield expansion, with an estimated Rs 1.5 lakh crore investments for modernisation.