Gujarat is No.1 in Public Enterprises investment:Centre report

According to a latest survey carried out by the Government of India, Gujarat is no.1 state leaving behind all the other states of the country in terms of investment in State Level Public Enterprises.

As per the survey results, Gujarat is followed by Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. These top ten States claim 82 per cent of the total investment in all States.

The survey was released by Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Shri Vilas Rao Deshmukh at the conference of Secretaries of States and Union Territories on State Level Public Enterprises in New Delhi on Thursday.

This National Survey on State Level Public Enterprises (2006-07) conducted by Government of India’s Department of Public Enterprises is the first such survey on State Level Public Enterprises that play a vital role in States/Uts’ economy by way of providing public utility services such as electricity , road, transportation and supply of drinking water etc.

The survey provides financial data on Top 10 SLPEs in each States/UTs. According to survey there were around 837 working SLPEs in the country which is four times the number of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) . In terms of investment, the SLPEs stood at around 79 per cent of the total investments in CPSEs, where as in terms of employment, the total number of employees in SLPEs exceeded those in all the CPSE put together. The power and energy sector claimed a larger share of 67 per cent.

Speaking on the occasion, Central Minister said that model MoU prepared by the Department of Public Enterprises must be adopted by State level Public Enterprises also keeping in view the adaptability of the targets as envisaged in the MoU in their respective PSUs. He said that MoU gives an opportunity to assess our performance and also it makes accountable the PSU to the public.

On the occasion, Shri Arun Maira, Member Planning Commission emphasized the need to restore balance between public good and financial performance by SLPEs as well as CPSEs, though the challenge to SLPE is greater than CPSE because SLPEs are directly involved in providing public utility services for which increase in tariff is a very challenging task. Shri R.Bandyopadhyay, Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises elaborated the purpose of the Conference and importance of model MoU drafted by the Department which will give a mechanism to SLPEs to make themselves accountable to the public and improve upon their services.