The accumulated losses of 70 public sector undertakings (other than power sector) of Tamil Nadu stood at more than ₹27,000 crore as of March 31, 2019, said a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Public sector undertakings, tabled in the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
The paid up capital of 70 PSUs stood at ₹8,824.41 crore and its aggregate accumulated losses (net of free reserves of ₹3,590.44 crore in 34 PSUs) stood at ₹27,178.72 crore leaving a negative net worth of these PSUs at ₹18,354.31 crore as of March 31, 2019, said the report.
PSUs under Social Sector had positive returns and Competitive Sector PSUs had negative returns in all the five years during 2014-15 to 2018-19. PSUs under Others category had negative return during 2014-15 to 2018-19 except 2017-18 in which it had positive return.
Social sector PSUs
The 14 PSUs under Social Sector have been earning profit and had accumulated profit in all the years during the last five years. Consequently, their net worth was also positive and showed increasing trend from
The 54 PSU s under Competitive Sector were incurring losses in all the years and their accumulated losses increased from ₹1,248.30 crore in 2014-15 to ₹27,443 crore in 2018-19. The net worth at the end of 2014-15 was negative and the position further deteriorated in the subsequent years and stood at ₹18,887.22 crore in 2018-19.
The negative net worth under this category of PSUs was mainly from wight STUs (state transport undertakings), which reported net erosion of ₹23,169.53 crore as of March 31, 2019.
“The main reasons for the losses in STUs were non-revision of bus fare from time to time with the increase in the fuel cost and inefficiencies in fleet management. “The government needs to take appropriate action to make the STUs viable,” said the report.
In the power sector, the overall loss incurred by the five power sector companies was ₹13,176.20 crore in 2018-19 against the loss of ₹12,763.92 crore in 2014-15. Only one PSU (TN Powerfin) earned profit of ₹83.20 crore and three companies (TNEB Ltd, Tangedco and Tantransco) incurred a total loss of ₹13,259.40 crore.
In 2018-19, the loss of Tangedco increased to ₹4,862.64 crore mainly due to increase in cost of power purchase and generation as well as increase in employee and finance costs which together summed up to additional cost of ₹7,396.54 crore despite increase in revenue by ₹2,533.90 crore in 2018-19.