State public sector units (PSUs) in Gujarat have drawn severe flak from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its audit observations for the year the year 2009-10. The audit authority has highlighted serious deficiencies in the functioning of blue-chip PSUs including Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) and Gujarat State Petronet (GSPL).
The CAG brought out irregularities with respect to giving undue favour to several private companies costing the state exchequer a combined loss of close to Rs 64 crore.
The CAG revealed that top blue-chip state PSUs GSPC and GSPL for showing undue favour to the private companies. "GSPC had shown undue favour to Essar Power Limited (EPL) and Gujarat Paguthan Energy Corporation Limited (GPECL) by not recovering take or pay quantity charges of Rs 47.97 crore and penalty of Rs 3.59 crore for failure to lift minimum quantity of gas," CAG noted in its report, which was tabled in the state assembly on Wednesday.
EPL and GPECL were independent power producers and were supplying power to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL). As per the provisions made in the Gas Sale Agreement (GSA), if the total quantity of gas taken in any of the quarters by EPL/GPECL was less than the minimum off take quantity of gas multiplied by the number of days in the quarter, EPL/GPECL were liable to 'take or pay quantity charges' on this differential quantity.
Targeting the state-promoted, GSPL the CAG report further stated, "Non-adherence to the terms of gas transmission agreement and also to the decision of GSPL's board of directors resulted in passing of undue favour of Rs 11.18 crore to Ahmedabad-based Torrent Power Generation Limited."
Taking a note of the weak administration of the state PSUs, the CAG report maintained that Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (GSFC) failed to recover claims for short receipt of imported sulphur valuing Rs 1.08 crore due to unfavourable terms of payment.
In a blow to the state government's claims about efficient power generation in state, the CAG report maintained that state-run power generating company, Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSEC) failed to efficiently generate power, leading to a generation shortfall of 9599 million units (MU) during 2005-2010. "As against the national average plant load factor (PLF) of 76.74 per cent, the PLF of the GSEC remained between 68.01 to 76.2 per cent during 2005-10," the report said.
It further added that the planned and forced outages in excess of CEA norms led to generation loss of 13,810 MUs and 6,807 MUs respectively and consequential loss of contribution amounting to Rs 740.72 crore during the period.
For the state government's prestigious project, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL), the CAG observed that the company failed to avoid a payment of price adjustment of Rs 13.92 crore due to avoidable delay in making payment of dues and submission of model test data to the contractor.
