12 out of 15 Meghalaya Govt PSUs incur nearly Rs 400 cr loss

Twelve of the 15 Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in Meghalaya have incurred revenue loss of nearly Rs 400 crore, officials said today.
The revelations were made today during the presentation made by the heads of these PSUs to the Assembly Committee on Public Sector Undertakings headed by former chief minister S C Marak.
"Taking cognizance of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), we found that the state government has incurred a revenue loss of Rs 389.50 crore till 2016," committee member and Opposition United Democratic Party legislator Titos Chyne told reporters.
He said the committee was surprise that there is nothing worth praising on the performances of these PSUs.

Although there were 17 PSUs in the state, two were closed down by the government.
Except for three units - the Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC), Forest Development Corporation (FDC) and the Meghalaya Government Construction Corporation Limited (MGCC) which are making minor net profits, Chyne said all the units were running at a loss.

The Assembly committee, however, informed that the three profit making PSUs have failed to submit their respective accounts for the past four to five years and their accounts were only up to 2011.
"We have raised this issue of non-submission of accounts so that the units will accordingly take up steps on this matter," he said adding that the state government has also failed to take steps on the recommendations of the committee which had already submitted its report in the last Assembly session.

The Committee, in its report last year, had recommended the government to put in place an institutional agreement with an action plan and timeline to direct the defaulting PSUs to clear the arrears and finalise their accounts at the earliest.
It has also observed that the defaulting PSUs are detrimental to the financial interest of the government even as it also endorsed a recommendation made by the CAG wherein fresh grants should be made only when accounts are finalized.
He said that they had also suggested the administrative departments to take the responsibility to oversee the activities of these entities and to ensure that the accounts are finalized and adopted by these PSUs within stipulated period.

The Assembly Committee also informed that one of the main problems faced by the PSUs was due to over staff.
The Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) is having a total of 383 staff with only 64 buses that too not all of them are functioning, so this creates a problem, he said.
As per the Committee report, the state government had invested an amount aggregating Rs 526.17 crore in 9 SPSUs (equity: Rs 57.08 crore (5 SPSUs), Loans: Rs 67.74 crore (1 SPSU) and grants Rs 401.35 crore (7 SPSUs) during the years the accounts of these SPSUs were pending finalization.