FACT units face closure

Our Bureau Updated - April 27, 2014 at 10:19 PM.

The functioning of the public sector FACT will come to a standstill within a week if the government fails to come out with the financial package recommended by the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE).

Chairman and Managing Director Jaiveer Srivastava said the company could not go forward without government help.

“We are running short of working capital and not in a position to approach banks or financial institutions further as all the channels of cash flow have been exhausted,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the southern regional committee meeting of the Fertiliser Association of India.

If the government is not taking any favourable decision on the ₹ 991-crore financial package recommended by the BRPSE, the company has no option but to shut down the plants, he said. The FACT is not in a position to raise money even for its day-to-day operations, he added.

The BRPSE recommendation was made to the Centre two months ago. The CMD expressed the hope that the Union Cabinet meeting would take a favourable decision in this regard.

The rising cost of LNG price and increase in raw material prices has severely hampered the functioning of the company since the beginning of the New Year.

The Save FACT Action Committee, a joint forum of trade unions at FACT, has been holding hunger strikes in Kochi for the past 86 days, demanding immediate clearance of the revival package.

Published on April 27, 2014 16:49