- 46 state-run enterprises in Kerala together incurred a net loss of Rs 2,731 crore in the last fiscal year, according to a government report. - The accumulated losses of 52 state public sector enterprises (SLPEs) in Kerala reached Rs 11,755 crore during the last fiscal year. - The top loss-making company was the Kerala State Electricity Board, which incurred a loss of Rs 1,272.90 crore, accounting for almost half of total losses by SLPEs.

1. Shenoy.Karun@timesgroup.com
Kochi: Kerala government’s 46 enterprises to-
gether caused a net loss of Rs 2,731 crore during
the last financial year, revealed the “Review of
Public Enterprises in Kerala 2014-15,” an ana-
lytical report from the Bureau of Enterprises.
Thereport,originallypreparedbytheCentrefor
Management Development, also noted that the
accumulatedlossesof 52state-levelpublicsector
enterprises (SLPEs) in Kerala touched a whop-
ping Rs 11,755 crore during the last fiscal.
Topping the list of companies in the red is
Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), which
caused a loss of Rs 1,272.90 crore, almost half of
thetotallossbySLPEs.Thesecondpositiongoes
to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation
(KSRTC),whichregisteredanetlossof Rs621.28
crore during last financial year, nearly 23% of
the overall loss by SLPEs. Kerala Water Author-
ity (KWA) marked a loss of 457.84 crore, almost
17% of the overall losses. Public utilities compa-
niestogethermadealossof Rs2,373.36croredur-
ing the last financial year.
On the other hand, 44 companies accounted
foratotalprofitof amodestRs700.96croreduring
FY-15,incomparisonwithRs664.67croreearned
by 45 enterprises in 2013-14. Net position (differ-
encebetweentotallossandtotalprofit)of public
sectorcompaniesforFY-15isRs2030.05crore,an
increase of 183% over the previous year.
KeralaStateBeveragesCorporationLtdisthe
most profit-generating governmental company
in the state. It made Rs 220.59 crore net gain in
FY-15, nearly one third of the total profit of
SLPEs.KeralaStateFinancialEnterprisesLtdis
behindwithRs209.48crore,contributingalmost
30%of theoverallSLPEprofit.KeralaFinancial
Corporation is the third most profit-generating
enterprise of the government, with a financial
gainof Rs68.81crore,whichisroughlyonetenth
of the total profit of state public companies.
While the net loss went up by 97.66% to Rs
2,731 crore, as against Rs 1,381.70 crore of FY-14,
seven loss-making companies turned profitable
during financial year 2014-15. They are: Kerala
TourismDevelopmentCorporation,Travancore
Sugars & Chemicals Ltd, Travancore Cochin
Chemicals Ltd, Travancore Cochin Chemicals
Ltd, Kerala Police Housing and Construction
Corporation Ltd, Foam Mattings (India) Ltd,
OverseasDevelopmentandEmploymentPromo-
tion Consultants Ltd and Kerala State Palmyrah
Products Development and Workers’ Welfare
Corporation Ltd.
Of all the active 96 public sector companies,
91 provided financial data to the Bureau of En-
terprises. Compared to the previous financial
year,thenetworthof allthe91enterprisestaken
together came down by 13.70% to touch Rs 9367
crore as at the end of FY-15.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala State Financial
Enterprises (KSFE) has recorded a profit of
Rs 209 crore in 2014-15, claiming the second
place in terms of profitability among PSUs in
the state after the state beverages
corporation. KSFE chairman P T Jose said the
company’s turnover grew from Rs 12,333
crore in 2010-11 to Rs 28,541 crore in four-
and-a-half years. Jose said the worth of
company's assets rose to Rs 476 crore in
2014-15 from Rs 193.13 crore five years
ago. TNN
Shenoy.Karun@timesgroup.com
Kochi: Economists and manage-
ment experts feel that corrup-
tion, overstaffing and growing
interference of political parties
are the reasons behind growing
losses of public sector compa-
nies.
Overstaffing and corruption
are the major factors behind the
continuing dismal state of PSEs,
said Prof K N Harilal of Centre
for Development Studies, Thiru-
vananthapuram. “Take the case
of Meenvallam mini-hydel pro-
ject, set up and run by the Palak-
kad district panchayat. They had
been registering a net profit of Rs
75 lakh from the project which
employs only 10 people. On the
other hand, if you had overstaffed
it, the project could have been a
loss-making entity,” he said.
Surprisingly, the last LDF
government had made conscious
efforts to run these organisations
effectively, Harilal said. “As a re-
sult of those actions, the PSEs
were doing very well by the time
LDF left power. The performance
of Kerala companies even gained
national attention at a seminar
held at Delhi, back then,” he said.
T M Thomas Isaac, the fi-
nance minister during the previ-
ous government, said the indus-
tries minister of his government
had been reviewing the progress
of the companies personally. “He
also fixed the targets and checked
whether they performed or not.
Now this is all given up,” he said.
A second factor for the col-
lapse of the PSEs is the change
in procurement policy of the
government, Isaac said. “Kerala
government is spending Rs 500
crore to Rs 600 crore for sourcing
drugs from outside while the
Kerala Drugs and Pharmaceuti-
cals is given only Rs 14 crore.
KSEB could consume the output
of the electrical industry – of
TELK and KEL, but prefers to
purchase it from the market,” he
said.
Management failure, corrup-
tion, idling of the factories and
production facilities are other
reasons cited by Isaac for the
poor performance of govern-
ment-owned companies. “With
these companies having a very
high accumulated loss, the turn-
around will be really tough. Re-
structuring them will be doubly
difficult,” he said.
Rudra Sensarma, associate
professor for economics, Indian
Institute of Management-
Kozhikode, said that the succes-
sive governments supported
these companies because of the
number of people they employed.
“The public sector enterprises
are making losses because social
welfare does not take into ac-
count profit or loss, but jobs they
provide and families that derive
livelihood,” he said.
Perhaps, private sector par-
ticipation could help the compa-
nies achieve efficiency, said Sen-
sarma. “If there is an owner who
could realize better value out a
resource, then that owner should
run the organisation and draw
greater value. And that will ben-
efit the entire state economy,” he
said. According to him, privatiza-
tion and public-private partner-
ship (PPP) are two possible
routes to make these organisa-
tions profitable.
“You could allow a private
person to run the company for a
licence or fee which could be col-
lected by the government,” he
said.
Behind the rut: ‘Corruption,
overstaffing and interference’
Accumulated Losses
Of 52 Public Sector
Enterprises In The
State Touched
`11,755 Crore In Fy-15
VENTILATOR ECONOMICS
1.20% 2.77%
0.91% 2.56%
Top ten loss incurring SLPEs
during 2014-15
Top five SLPEs in terms of
employment during 2014-15
Top five SLPEs with accumulated losses
during 2014-15
Top ten profit making SLPEs
during 2014-15
Top five negative net worth*
enterprises during 2014-15
`98.34cr 3.60%
`33.16cr 1.21%
`32.79cr
`24.78cr
`24.25cr 0.89%
`24.08cr 0.88%
`17.59cr
Transformers & Electricals Kerala
Kerala Minerals & Metals
Travancore Titanium Products
Kerala State Textile Corporation
Kerala State Housing Board
`457.84cr
Kerala Water Authority
Kerala State Road Transport Corp
Kerala State Cashew Dev Corp
Kerala State Electricity Board
Kerala State Civil Supplies Corp
`1272.90cr | 46.61%
`621.28cr
`32.18cr
`10,421.14cr
4.59%
`19.80cr
`10,118.56cr
2.82%
`19.45cr
`17.95cr
`16.10cr 2.30%
`16.03cr 2.29%
`14.13cr
Kerala Transport Dev Finance Corp
Kerala State Drugs & Pharmaceuticals
Kerala State Construction Corp
Kerala State Dev Corp for SC&ST
Kerala State Backward Classes Dev Corp
Pharmaceutical Corp Kerala
`68.81cr
17,922.27cr
Kerala Financial Corporation
Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation
Kerala State Financial Enterprises
Kerala State Cashew Dev Corp
Malabar Cements
Kerala State Beverages Corporation
Kerala State Industrial Dev Corp
Autokast
`220.59cr
`209.48cr
`86,644cr
22.75% 29.88%
31.47%
0.64% 2.02%
16.76% 9.82%
Kerala State Road
Transport Corp
Kerala State
Electricity Board
46,695
33,041
32.68%
23.12%
Kerala State Cashew
Development Corp
Kerala Water
Authority
Kerala State Financial
Enterprises
12,262
7,460
5,572
8.58%
5.22%
3.90%
`4,217.28cr
Kerala State
Road Transport
Corporation
Kerala Water
Authority
`2,620.39cr
Kerala
State Electricity
Board
`1,300.43cr
Kerala State
Cashew
Dev Corp
`1,162.84cr
Kerala State
Housing Board
576.58
No of employees
No of employees
No of employees
No of employees
No of employees
`2,91,091cr
FY-15 UPS AND DOWNS
46 enterprises
cause a net loss of
`2,731cr
44 firms account
for a total profit of
`700.96cr
7 loss-making
companies
turn profitable
Kerala State Road Transport Corp
KSFE RECORDS PROFIT OF
`209CR IN 2014-15
TOPPING THE LIST OF COMPANIES IN THE RED IS KERALA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD (KSEB), WHICH
CAUSED A LOSS OF `1,272.90 CRORE
Kochi:Amajortragedywas
averted in Maradu on Wed-
nesday when the concrete
beamof theRs29-croreKun-
danoor–Nettoor bridge un-
derconstructiontiltedinthe
evening. Four workers from
West Bengal suffered minor
injuriesintheaccident.
There were seven wor-
kersonthespotwhentheac-
cident occurred. The new
bridge runs parallel to the
Kundanoor–Thevara brid-
ge. According to officials,
the concrete work of the be-
am was completed 15 days
ago. Ports minister K Babu
hadinauguratedtheconcre-
tingof thebeam.
The workers were remo-
vingthesupportof thebeam
when it tilted at around
4.50pm. Okkai Ghosh, Vipin
Ghosh, Poshal Ghosh and
Sujith Pullian are the inju-
red labourers. The accident
occurred in the Kundanno-
or side. The 35m long beam
was also damaged. “The ac-
cident occured due to the ca-
relessness of the contractor.
They removed the supports
of the beam without consul-
tingtheengineer,”aPWDof-
ficialsaid.
“We have not yet recei-
ved a clear picture of how
the accident took place. We
have launched a probe into
theincident.Thestatements
of injured workers, who ha-
ve been admitted to Lakes-
hore Hospital, will soon be
taken,” the Maradu police
said. The incident resulted
in traffic congestion on the
Kundannoor–Thevara brid-
geaspeoplestoppedtheirve-
hiclestowatch.
The construction of the
new bridge started two ye-
ars ago. The work has been
undertaken by a contractor
for the public works
department.
Four migrants
hurt in Maradu
bridge mishap
WHAT LIES BENEATHT K Deepaprasad
FINDING CABLES: A policeman with a metal detector helps a BSNL
official to find underground cables laid on TD Road in Kochi on
Wednesday. The inspection was also carried out on Veekshanam
Road, SA Road and Chittoor Road
Kochi: Kudumbashree is
organizing a two-day film
festival on women-centric
themes in Aluva.
Titled ‘Penkazhcha’,
this is being held as part
of ‘gender self-learning
programme’ on the occa-
sion of International Wo-
men’s Day. The festival
will begin on Thursday.
The fest will screen
both regional as well as fo-
reign movies. This will be
followed by discussions
by experts in the field. Ke-
rala state film awardee
Kukku Parameswaran
and film critic Pramod
Emson will be the leading
speakers in the discus-
sions.
“A closer look reveals
gender bias in films, espe-
cially movies that do well
in the theatres. Though a
few independent women-
centric movies are being
released, they’re either
goingunnoticedorarenot
well received. The society
ismisledwiththeportray-
al of women in a bad light.
This needs to be chang-
ed,” said Tanny Thomas,
district mission co-ordi-
nator of Kudumbashree,
Ernakulam.
“Kudumbasree consti-
tutes a major portion of
women from middle or lo-
wer strata of society. Awa-
reness among the mem-
bersof ourowncommuni-
ty will help to take the
matter to a wider audien-
ce with more focus on
grassroots level,” said
Tanny Thomas.
A total of six movies
including Ethiopian film
‘Difret’ directed by Zere-
senay Mehari will be scre-
enedintheforeignfilmca-
tegory. The movie both in
its content and the back-
ground shows the under-
lying potential of women.
Now, Kudumbashree
to hold a film festival
The beam of Kundanoor–Nettoor bridge tilted on Wednesday
TOI
Titled ‘Penkazhcha’,
the two-day film
festival will screen
both regional and
foreign movies
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, KOCHI | THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016
FINANCE DEPARTMENT, CABINET DIFFER ON
REGULARIZATION OF TEMPORARY STAFF | P4
PROJECT TO DEVELOP 40 MICRO TOURISM
DESTINATIONS ACROSS THE STATE | P6