Principal Correspondent
Kohima, August 1
The government of Nagaland invested an amount of Rs 242.65 crore on Statutory Corporations, Rural Banks, Joint Stock Companies and Cooperatives.
According to Comptroller Auditor General of India (CAG) report on State Finances for the year ended March 31, 2013, which was laid in the just concluded State Assembly session, the average return on this investment was ‘Nil’ during the last five years 2008-09 to 2012-13.
The report stated that out of the total government investment of Rs 242.65 crore at the close of current year (2012-13), Rs 198.69 crore was invested in four government companies, Distillery Project (Rs 30 lakh), Nagaland State Mineral Development Corporations (Rs. 64.78 crore) and Public Sector & Others Undertakings (Rs. 81.06 crore).The remaining amount of Rs 73.96 crore was invested in two Joint Stock Companies (Rs 32.10 crore) and Statutory Corporations, Cooperative Bank and Cooperative Societies etc. (Rs 41.86 crore), the CAG stated.
During the current year, it said, the government made additional investment of Rs 14.64 crore in State Mineral Development Corporations (Rs 5.50 crore), Public Sector and Other Undertakings (Rs 3 crore) and Other Cooperatives (Rs 6.14 crore).
It revealed that out of the four government companies in the State, one company – Nagaland Sugar Mills Ltd. with Rs 7.29 crore upto 2001-02 was non-working whose accounts were in arrears for 35 years.
The three working companies – Nagaland Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. (Rs 8.39 crore), Nagaland Industrial Raw Materials & Supply Corporation Ltd. (Rs 4.05 crore) were incurring losses, it said.
Except Nagaland Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. whose accounts were in arrears for one year, the accounts of the remaining two working government companies were in arrears for periods ranging between three to ten years, it said. Hence, the actual financial status of the companies as on March 2013 could not be assessed.
Suggesting that effective steps should be taken by the government to increase profitability in the government companies/statutory corporations, the CAG has asked the government to ensure better value for money in investments by identifying the companies/corporations which are endowed with low financial but high socio-economic returns and see if high cost borrowings need to be invested in those companies/corporations.
Besides, it said, as no purpose is served by keeping the non-working companies in existence, the government may expedite closing them down.
