Payment of statutory dues, salary and wages in 10 sick / loss making CPSE under the Dept of Heavy Industry

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved non-plan budgetary support of ` 70.76 crore for liquidation of statutory dues (Provident Fund, Gratuity, Pension, Employees State Insurance and Bonus) and salary and wages from Jan.1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2010 for the following 10 sick/loss making Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under the Department of Heavy Industry:

S.No.	Name of CPSE	Amount (` in crore)
1	Hindustan Cables Ltd.	20.93
2	HMT Ltd.	5.36
3	HMT (Watches) Ltd.	14.31
4	HMT (CW) Ltd.	0.96
5	Hindustan Photo Films Ltd	3.1
6	Triveni Strucurals Ltd.	0.71
7	Tungbhadra Steel Products Ltd.	0.6
8	Nepa Ltd.	11.46
9	Scooters India Ltd.	11.01
10	HMT Bearings Ltd.	2.32
TOTAL		70.76

The CCEA also delegated its power to Minister (Heavy Industry & Public Enterprises) to sanction budgetary support, through reappropriation from out of the approved non-plan budget outlay, to loss making PSEs under DHI which are unable to generate internal financial resources to meet their liabilities towards payment of salary wages to their employees and settlement of statutory dues, subject to the condition that budgetary support will be released for a period of three months at a time keeping a gap of three months from the month of default.

It was considered essential that the interim financial support from the Government be provided so that the operations of the companies will not be affected. Non-settlement of these liabilities had been causing serious hardship not only to the employees of the companies but also adversely affecting the day-to-day operations of the companies resulting in further deterioration of their performance.

Payment of outstanding dues of salary/wages will mitigate the hardship of the employees and motivate them for better output and prepare them to achieve the goal of revival / restructuring for the company. In addition, clearance of outstanding statutory dues (Provident Fund, Gratuity, Pension, Employees State Insurance and Bonus) is likely to result in fulfilment of the statutory requirement.

The Salary/Wages support is being provided to these CPSEs since May, 2004. Prior to above approval, an amount of ` 1883 crore has so far been sanctioned on 16 occasions. As a result of the revival plans being approved in case of 16 CPSEs, eight CPSEs have turned around and posted net profit in 2009-2010. Initially in (May/June, 2004) there were 24 CPSEs which had defaulted in payment of wages/salaries. This number has now come down to ten after comprehensive restructuring efforts have been made.

Source : PIB