Should loss making Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), as per strict commercial solution, be out rightly closed as not being in a position to perform and register profits after meeting all the expenses in the process or sold out to private establishments for running in a strict business like manner regardless of the fate of the employees working therein which in the process could be subjected to the rigours of need based requirement exercise on the principle of how much output – within how many hours – by how many employees – against how much wages/salaries etc. In other words, surplus staff under the process as worked out professionally, shall have to move out and only those required who could work hard to transform a loss making entity into a profit earning one. Ostensibly, in an elastic democratic set up where social welfare measures and employees’ job protection reign almost supreme and are given utmost importance lead Governments to bail out such loss making entities by granting loans and advances with much favourable repayment schedule, which, however, should be a short term measure. Not only that, besides making investments in Co-operative Societies, Companies etc, the Government has been, as a routine and accepted practice, providing loans, advances and other monetary concessions to various other institutions and organisations so that they faced no problems on account of finances to run such institutions smoothly. However, although loans or give the term any name, liquid assets, as such, coming into the hands can change the face of such loss making institutions provided they are managed professionally as it imparts a new life into the system to get energised and rejuvenated. The said PSU, therefore, comes out of the scenario of making losses but it is to be remembered that a loan is a liability which has got to be cleared as it enjoins upon the management of the concerned PSU to chalk out strategies and plans to achieve such favourable results and imbibes a sense of more responsibility in employees to put in their best, other things remaining the same.
Having said that, it is beyond comprehension that against an outstanding of Rs.923 crore as loans and advances, a paltry amount of Rs. 0.23 crore has been repaid by such loss making PSUs during 2019-20 which has been severely commented upon by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India and since almost namesake recovery and not merely poor recovery of loans and advances, have been witnessed during 2019-20, net increase of outstanding has resulted on account of adding of nominal interest thereon and other expenses . J&K ( State) Road Transport Corporation (JKSRTC) for instance, which has throughout remained in the red except for a brief period, now provided with the fleet of new, modern tourist special buses, mini buses etc and operated not within the UT only but running long distance interstate services too, has repaid nothing and a whooping amount of Rs.377 crore is outstanding against the corporation. Instead, during the period under reference, Rs.7 crore was further advanced to the corporation. As some measures of reforms were carried out in the JKSRTC a few years back to bring the Corporation on proper rails and many employees, as such, had sought the VRS facility too with some additional monetary benefits and some routes were rescheduled for running services, still it seems, it has been faring not only bad but worse which was likely to jeopardise its very survival unless it was made profitable.
Such a scenario cannot be allowed to continue using public funds as loans and advances to finance losses and not ensuring end use as such loans can be frittered on meeting consumption needs, salary bills and not on creating assets by such loss making PSUs which has also been opined by the CAG of India and directed the UT Government “to review its policy with regard to disbursement of loans and advances to loss making PSUs.” We do not rule out operational problems faced by the concerned loss making PSUs which can only be addressed by employing suitable strategies, reforms, innovations, improvement in services, facing competitions from other players in the field, minimising wastages and idle capacities and the like. The obverse of all these hardly needs to be elaborated .
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel