PSUs post negative growth during July 2000

New Delhi, Aug 24: A general slowdown in engineering goods industry, particularly Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and Hindusthan Machi...

New Delhi, Aug 24: A general slowdown in engineering goods industry, particularly Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and Hindusthan Machine Tools (HMT), has affected the production performance of public sector undertakings which saw a negative growth rate of 5.14 per cent during July.

While BHEL recorded a negative growth rate of 11 per cent, HMT fared badly with an over 33 per cent negative growth rate, according to latest monthly figures released by the Department of Heavy Industry.

Production performance of 25 PSUs fell short by 18 per cent of the

targeted Rs 804.17 crore achieving Rs 658.56 crore production in July this fiscal. This was 5.14 per cent lower compared to production worth Rs 699.86 crore during the same period the previous year.

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Engineering units recorded a negative growth rate of 9.01 per cent at Rs 540.69 crore as against Rs 594.25 crore in July 1999 while non-engineering ones registered a 14.81 per cent increase in production at Rs 79.83 crore in July 2000 as compared to Rs 69.53 crore achieved in the same period last year.

Cumulative production was down 8.23 per cent at Rs 2,514.71 crore during the first four months of current fiscal as against Rs 2,747.72 crore during the corresponding period last year.

BHEL production target fell by 18 per cent at Rs 315 crore as against a target of Rs 387 crore in July 2000. This was 11.02 per cent lower than the Rs 354 crore production achieved during the same period last year.

With production target slipping by over 22 per cent, HMT registered a negative growth rate of 33.74 per cent at Rs 39.51 crore production as compared to Rs 59.63 crore production achieved in July 1999.

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Similarly, HEC production was down 33.20 per cent to Rs 14.55 crore in July 2000 as against Rs 21.78 crore of the previous year. The July production target of HEC was Rs 34.86 crore.

In the non-engineering units, Cement Corporation of India (CCI) posted a 30.57 per cent negative growth in production achieving Rs 5.86 crore as compared to Rs 8.44 crore production in July 1999. CCI’s production target for July 2000 was Rs 13.46 crore.

Only eight of the 25 PSUs achieved or exceeded their targets in July 2000.

BHEL’s cumulative production during the first four months of current fiscal was down 21.14 per cent at Rs 1,179 crore as against Rs 1,495 crore in the same period last year.

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Cumulative production of HMT during April-July 2000 was down 10.94 per cent at Rs 179.65 crore as compared to Rs 201.72 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Among the non-engineering units, CCI’s cumulative production was 45.64 per cent less at Rs 27.95 crore as against the April-July 1999 figure of Rs 51.42 crore.