Hari Sharan Pudasaini, under-secretary at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), said the government lent Rs 25.3 million to Nepal Drugs Limited (NDL), Rs 52.5 million to Gorakhkali Rubber Factory, Rs 56.6 million for Janakpur Cigarette Factory (JCF) and Rs 1.5 million for Nepal Metal Company (NMC) during the period. Similarly, it provided Rs 3 million each to Nepal Oriend Magnesite Company (NOMC) and Nepal Productivity and Economic Development Center (NPEDC). [break]
“We provided the amount as loan to these PEs responding to the demands placed by them,” Pudasaini, said. “They used the amount to pay salary to their staffers and implement new programs to promote their business.”
The government has been regularly providing certain amount of funds to JCF, NMC, NDL and NOMC, which are currently non-functional, for paying salary to their staffers.
According to Pudasaini, JCF and NDL need Rs 150 million and Rs 5 million per month, respectively to pay salary of around 700 and 200 staffers. Similarly, NMC and NOMC need Rs 200,000 each every month to pay their staff members.
The amount released so far in this fiscal year is 28 times higher than Rs 5.3 million allocated that the government has allocated to carry out reform measures in state-owned enterprises in 2012/13.
The National Planning Commission (NPC), the apex policy making body of the government, has put a ceiling of one billion rupees in the next fiscal year for the purpose.
Loss-making PEs are piling financial pressure on the government because of the delay in settling their liabilities including salary and allowance of staff members.
The latest status of PEs shows that the government has so far invested Rs 95 billion in a total of 37 PEs. Only 21 of them are making profits. Besides salary and liabilities to the government, PEs have other liabilities worth Rs 24.5 billion.
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