Weeks ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh questioned a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on coal block allocation.
Today, a Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled before the West Bengal assembly raised eyebrows when an account of Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) cleared in 2003-04 found its place in the CAG report on the West Bengal for the year 2010-11.
The dispute-hit firm had posted an accumulated loss of more than Rs 1,000 crore against a peak networth of Rs 2,844 crore last financial year. Meanwhile, it had to convert Rs 128 crore debt into equity in order to prevent from reporting to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) as a potentially sick company.
While alleging that better management could have controlled losses of Rs 6,072 crore,CAG listed HPL among the profit making companies in 2010-11.
In its report, CAG mentioned that during the year 2010-11, out of 72 working PSUs in the state, 30 earned a profit of Rs 550.6 crore and 40 PSUs incurred loss of Rs 812.4 crore. The report pointed West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company (Rs 174.4 crore), Haldia Petrochemicals (Rs 134.6 crore), West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (Rs 95.1 crore) and West Bengal Power Development Corporation (Rs 65.4 crore) as the major profit gainers in 2010-11.
Replying to a question on the discrepancy in HPL figures, a top CAG official said, “These are the figures of 2003-04, which the company reported . We have got the company’s accounts for the last eight years a couple of months ago.” However, the CAG official had no answer to it giving a quality certificate for 51 accounts, out of the total 69, including HPL’s.
When asked about the differences in the CAG report, state industries and commerce minister Partha Chatterjee, who is also the chairman on HPL, said, "I am yet to go through the report. However, HPL was not in profits in 2010-11." The promoters of HPL — the West Bengal Government and The Chatterjee Group — were fighting a legal battle for long over shareholding.
The main loss making PSUs in the state are the Calcutta Tramways Company (Rs 208.3 crore), The Durgapur Projects Ltd (Rs 183.5 crore), Calcutta State Transport Corporation (Rs 46.9 crore) and West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (Rs 47.5 crore).
