State PSUs drain Rs 31,000 cr from exchequer

The State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs) in West Bengal bled the most, losing Rs 439.53 crore, the National Survey on SLPEs for 2006-07 said. The survey, which was released earlier this month, found Delhi SLPEs also suffering losses of Rs 143.49 crore. Other states where these units were not doing well included Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Meghalaya.

The states which give huge grants to these companies include Andhra Pradesh (Rs 4,975 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 4,219 crore), Haryana (Rs 3,807 crore), Gujarat (Rs 3,383 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 2,727 crore), Punjab (Rs 1,505 crore) and Rajasthan (Rs 1,254 crore).
In all, there were 837 functional SLPEs as on March 31, 2007, employing 18 lakh employees, the survey said.