In Cabinet: Govt approves Rs 70 cr for salaries of sick CPSEs’ employees

The CCEA also delegated its power to Minister of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises Vilasrao Deshmukh to sanction budgetary support,through re-appropriation from out of the approved non-Plan Budget outlay,to loss making public sector enterprises.

“It was considered essential that the interim financial support from the government be provided so that the operations of the companies will not be affected,” it added.

The central public sector enterprises which will benefit from the decision are — Hindustan Cables,HMT,HMT (Watches),HMT (CW),Hindustan Photo Films,Triveni Strucurals,

Tungbhadra Steel Products,Nepa,Scooters India and HMT Bearings.

The salary or wages support is being provided to these CPSEs since May 2004. Earlier,an amount of Rs 1,883 crore were sanctioned on 16 occasion. In 2004,there were 24 CPSEs which had defaulted in payment of wagessalaries.

“This number has now come down to ten after comprehensive restructuring efforts have been made,” the release added.

Govt approves more textile parks under SITP

To create more jobs and attract investment,the government today approved setting up of additional textile parks in the country under the Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks (SITP).

However,the number of sanctioned projects will be limited so that committed liability of the new projects is within the balance amount of Rs 200 crore available from SITP plan allocation,an official release said.

The decision was taken at the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in New Delhi.

As of now about 40 textile park projects have been sanctioned under the SITP.

Under the scheme,a cumulative expenditure of about Rs 911.54 crore has been incurred in the last three financial years.

The primary objective of the SITP is to provide the industry with world-class infrastructure facilities for setting up their textile units.

The release further said that guidelines of the scheme have been modified to provide for an exclusive appraisal mechanism to analyse projects in detail.

“Accordingly,modification of the extent guidelines has been approved to bring in a two-tier system,an inter- ministerial Project Scrutiny Committee to apprise and recommend the project to the Project Approval Committee,” it said.

The development of additional textile parks in the backdrop of successful implementation will facilitate additional investment,employment generation and increase in textiles production,” it added.

Govt extends reservation quota for ITI for two more years

In a bid to rescue debt-ridden ITI Ltd,the government asked telecom companies BSNL and MTNL to procure 30 per cent of their equipment from the state -run telecom equipment maker for another two years.

This is with effect from September 21,2010.

“BSNL and MTNL will give 70 per cent advance against the orders placed on ITI so that the company does not face the problem of working capital for the execution of the orders,” an official statement said.

The decision was taken at the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA),which met in Delhi.

The extension of the benefit of 30 per cent reservation quota with 70 per cent adavnce from BSNL and MTNL will ensure enough orders for ITI for the production activities.

“In today’s highly competitive environment,it is very difficult for ITI to survive on its own without the benefit of quota which BSNL/MTNL has been exenting for the company for the last many years,” the statement added.

ITI has incurred loss of Rs 3,513 crore as on March 31,2010.

In order to enable ITI to survive in the competitive environment of telecom manufacturing,BSNL and MTNL have been executing reservation benefit of 30 per cent along with 70 per cent advance to ITI Ltd.

ITI has units at Palakkad,Bangalore,Srinagar,Naini,Rae Bareli and Mankapur.

For long ITI had been enjoying the preferred vendor status from BSNL and MTNL under a reserved category.