Power, infrastructure get most of government investment in Gujrat.

Power and infrastructure sectors in Gujarat have received a major thrust when it comes to investments made by the state government in state public sector undertakings (SPSUs), states Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)’s report on the public sector undertakings for the year ended March 2019.

Gujarat government’s total investments in its 87 SPSUs stood at Rs. 2.49 lakh crore as on March 31, 2019. Of the total SPSUs, 16 are inactive. “The thrust of SPSUs investment was mainly in the power and infrastructure sector as the percentage share of investment in infrastructure sector to total investment was 35.8% (Rs. 89,499 crore) in 2018-19 as compared to 32.4% in 2014-15,” said the report, which was tabled in the state assembly on Friday. The share of power sector in total investment was 42.7% (Over Rs. 1 lakh crore) in 2018-19, which increased from 42% in 2018-19.

According to CAG, the active SPSUs registered a turnover of Rs. 1.48 lakh crore according to their financial statements as on September 30, 2019. There are 10 SPSUs in power sector and their turnover recorded continuous increase over previous year and stood at Rs. 1.09 lakh crore. As against this, the investment in 10 power sector SPSUs was Rs. 1.06 lakh crore. All the state-run power sector companies earned profit of Rs. 1,085 crore.

“GoG infused funds in the form of equity and loans in only three power sector SPSUs. The return on investment (RoI) from the three PSUs based on historical cost ranged between 0.46% and 0.87% during the period from 2014-15 to 2018-19,” the report added.

Losses of 15 SPSUs bigger than profits of 44 units

Out of total 61 active SPSUs, 15 SPSUs incurred losses of Rs 2,569 crore during 2018-19. As against this, the net profit of 44 SPSUs remained at 2,487 crore. The government made investments in 61 SPSUs and the return on investment from these companies ranged from negative 18.9% to 0.7% during the period from 2014-15 to 2018-19.

ET