5 states claim half of PSUs investment; Maha tops

Five states, including Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, attracted about half of the total investment of Rs 5.5 lakh crore by central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) between 2008-09 and 2012-13, a study by Assocham has said.

Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were among the top five investment destinations for CPSEs between 2008-09 and 2012-13 the study said. Maharashtra alone claimed 20 per cent of the total gross investments, followed by Andhra Pradesh (8.4 per cent), Tamil Nadu (8.1 per cent), Odisha (6.7 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (6.2 per cent).

Interestingly, those which are at the bottom of the investment destinations include some of the developed states like Gujarat, Karnakata and Haryana.

The bottom states in terms of CPSE investments are: Bihar (3.2 percent), Gujarat (2.8 percent), Karnataka (2.5 percent), Jharkhand (1.9 percent), Kerala (1.5 percent), Rajasthan (1.1 percent), Jammu & Kashmir (1.1 percent), Arunachal Pradesh (0.9 percent), Uttaranchal (0.8 percent), Punjab (0.7 percent) and Haryana (0.6 percent), highlights its paper.

However, the investment would have been much more with improved employment generation had there not been delays in execution and implementation of the new projects, the study noted.

There were altogether 582 projects under implementation in the central sector as on June 2013. Out of these, 311 projects reported a time over run ranging from one month to 240 months which could have had a negative impact on employment, it said.

Investment is a function of the state of economy, historical base of the concerned CPSE, industrial environment and the push factor of the states besides priorities of the Central Government.

'Despite talks of autonomy, the public sector investment decisions are influenced by several factors other than pure commercial considerations,' Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said. Besides the top five states, other major beneficiaries included West Bengal (5.3 percent), Chhattisgarh (4.8 percent), Assam (3.9 percent), Madhya Pradesh (3.8 percent) and Himachal Pradesh (3.4 percent).

Moreover, CPSEs investment growth rate was recorded at 9.05 percent in 2012-13 on year on year basis as compared to 13.42 percent in 2011-12, 9.48 percent in 2010-11 and 15.52 percent in 2009-10, adds the paper. However, the CPSEs managed to rake in a smart growth in net profit despite difficult years in the global and domestic economy. Overall net profit of all 229 CPSEs during 2012-13 stood at Rs. 1.15 lakh crore compared to Rs. 0.98 lakh crore during 2011-12 showing an increase of 17.36 percent.