PSUs post negative growth

PSUs post negative growth
AGENCIES

New Delhi, Feb 11: Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) posted a negative growth rate of over five per cent in the first nine months of current financial year mainly due to poor performance by the engineering majors including BHEL, Andrew Yule and HMT.

According to the data compiled by the Department of Heavy Industries, low growth in the non-engineering segment coupled with a eight per cent negative growth in the engineering segment pulled down overall production growth during the period April-December 2000-01. Growth performance during the month of December, 2000, was also negative by 3.32 per cent at Rs 962 crore compared to Rs 1,011 crore in the same month the previous year.

Cumulative production performance upto the month of December in case of engineering units was Rs 5,471 crore compared to Rs 5,996 crore in the same period last year on account of negative growth in eight PSUs including BHEL, Andrew Yule, HEC and HMT.

The non-engineering segment witnessed a 6.5 per cent growth at Rs 749 crore as against Rs 703 crore in the same month in 1999. Engineering units recorded a negative 7.73 per cent growth during the month of December at Rs 816 crore as against Rs 884.70 crore in 1999 again on account of negative growth attained by five PSUs in the sector. The non-engineering units achieved a 9.7 per cent growth in production at Rs 85 crore as compared to Rs 77.5 crore the previous year while the consultacy units attained a healthy 25.5 per cent growth at Rs 61.57 crore compared to Rs 49 crore in December last year.

Other PSUs in the segment which posted negative growth rate include Andrew Yule with 19 per cent at Rs 131 crore as against Rs 162 crore in 1999, HEC with a whopping 48.8 per cent at Rs 105 crore as against Rs 205 crore in the previous year, HMT with 5.6 per cent at Rs 439 crore compared to Rs 465 last year.

Of the nine PSUs in the non-engineering segment, four recorded negative growth rates between 21-53 per cent while two units in the consultancy segment posted negative growth rates during the nine month period.

Performance during the month of December, 2000, was not much different with six engineering PSUs posting double digit negative growth rates ranging between 10-83 per cent. The highest negative growth rate of 83 per cent was posted by MAMC .