Audit Reports
West Bengal
Report of 2009 - Performance Audit on Commercial of Government of West Bengal
Overview
Audit of Government companies is governed by Section 619 of the Companies Act, 1956. The accounts of Government companies are audited by Statutory Auditors appointed by CAG. These accounts are also subject to supplementary audit conducted by CAG. Audit of Statutory corporations is governed by their respective legislations. As on 31 March 2009, the State of West Bengal had 72 working PSUs (63 companies and 9 Statutory corporations) and 23 non-working PSUs (22 companies and one corporation), which employed 72930 employees. The PSUs registered a turnover of Rs. 17,304 crore for 2008-09 as per their latest finalised accounts. This turnover was equal to 5.59 per cent of State GDP indicating an important role played by State PSUs in the economy.
As on 31 March 2009, the investment (Capital and long term loans) in 95 PSUs was Rs. 40,970.41 crore. It grew by over 30.26 per cent from Rs. 31,451.74 crore in 2003-04. Power and finance sector accounted for nearly 81 per cent of total investment in 2008-09. The Government contributed Rs. 1,501.36 crore towards equity, loans and grants/subsidies during 2008-09.
During the year 2008-09, out of 72 working PSUs, 34 PSUs earned profit of Rs. 538.73 crore and 32 PSUs incurred loss of Rs. 608.11 crore while three PSUs prepared accounts on 'no profit no loss' basis, while three PSUs had not finalized their first accounts. The major contributors to profit were Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (Rs. 134.64 crore), West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited (Rs. 104.23 crore), West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (Rs. 100.26 crore) and West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited(Rs. 81.32 crore). The heavy losses were incurred by The Calcutta Tramways Company (1978) Limited (Rs. 195.25 crore), The Durgapur Projects Limited (Rs. 130.48 crore), Calcutta State Transport Corporation (Rs. 47 crore) and Kalyani Spinning Mills (Rs. 44.34 crore).