Public CompanySteel PSUs' budgetary estimates may be inflated: Panel
A parliamentary panel has rapped the steel ministry for under-utilisation of funds by Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) like SAIL and RINL, and said the Budgetary Estimates (BE) may be “inflated”.
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“The committee feels that either the estimates (for 11th Plan) prepared for SAIL and RINL were inflated or they have failed to utilise the allotted fund during the first two years in the plan,” the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel headed by Kalyan Banerjee has said in its latest report. “The committee regrets to observe that out of Rs 45,607.08 crore (for steel PSUs) approved by the Planning Commission for the 11th Plan, the expenditure made during the first two years was only Rs 12,356.89 crore,” the report said.
While during the year 2007-08, the steel public sector undertakings could spend only Rs 3831.03 crore(61.75 per cent) of the allotted fund, the expenditure during 2008-09 was Rs 6,203 crore.
The committee asked the ministry to identify the precise reasons for under-utilisation and to take remedial measures to expedite its utilisation to check delays in projects.
“The BE for the financial years are prepared after detailed discussions at plant and corporate levels based on physical progress of capital projects including modernisation and expansion plans under implementation in SAIL,” the ministry in its reply about SAIL to the committee had said. About National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) the panel said, “In 2008-09, it utilised Rs 335.66 crore only against the allotted amount of Rs 400 crore,” stating it failed to fully utilise even Rs 150 crore of BE in 2007-08, even after it was reduced from Rs 250 crore.
Terming the expenditure trend of Kudremukh Iron Ore Co Ltd (KIOCL)as “dismal” during the last two years, the committee said it had asked the ministry to furnish reasons for unrealistic preparations of estimates at BE stage by these PSUs. Stating the reasons furnished by the ministry for under-utilisation like expansion projects, statutory delays in projects etc as mainly administrative in nature, the committee said these “could have been dealt with by the ministry by way of improvement in their system and speedy disposal of things”.