सरकारी कंपन्यांचे दिवाळे, जरूर वाचा A unit of state-owned Hindustan Fertilizers has not produced fertiliser since it was set up in 1979

सरकारी कंपन्यांचे दिवाळे, जरूर वाचा 
Workers play cards as factories waste
A unit of state-owned Hindustan Fertilizers has not produced fertiliser since it was set up in 1979

Each day, about 2,800 workers punch their time-cards in and out of Hindustan Cables Ltd's factories in India. They get paid, receive the occasional raise and eat in subsidised canteens, even though they produce nothing.
The state-owned company, based in Kolkata, hasn't made any cable since 2004 and has lost $549 million after cellular technology made its telephone wiring obsolete. Labour laws which the World Bank says are among the most restrictive anywhere and tortuous bankruptcy procedures, a legacy of India's Soviet-era plan economy, mean the government can't fire idle employees or sell assets such as machinery or land.
About a third of India's 249 state-owned firms that make everything from condoms to steel are losing money — $3.4 billion in the most recent financial year - just as the government misses a goal of raising $8.7 billion this year selling stakes in companies.
"It is utterly crazy and everyone knows it's crazy but there is nothing the government can do because of the labour laws," said M Govinda Rao, one of four members of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. "The government is literally throwing money away." Kishore Rungta, chairman and managing director of Hindustan Cables, declined to comment.
While the government has stopped production at many state-owned companies, it won't close the plants. Any firm with more than 100 employees must gain approval from the labour department to shutter a factory. Permission has been granted 21 times for state companies, according to the 2010 Public Enterprises Survey, yet none have been liquidated.
"At some of these companies people are sitting around playing cards," said Nitish Sengupta, chairman of the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises, which recommends remedies for unprofitable government units. "Closing a company is the last measure we take after exhausting every option to revive it."
Singh's coalition government should amend the rules to make it easier for money-losing firms to close down, though it's unlikely to do this any time soon because of concerns about job losses, said Surjit Singh Bhalla, chairman of New Delhi-based Oxus Fund Management.
Public companies have assets worth $199 billion, which last year gave an average return on capital of about 4.3%. The government could earn twice as much putting the money in a one-year fixed term deposit with State Bank of India. At state-run Hindustan Fertilizers Co Ltd's Haldia factory in West Bengal, no fertiliser has been produced since it was assembled in 1979. Built on a small budget, inexperienced engineers bought parts from the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Japan, which when bolted together didn't work.
It took 24 years for most of the company's 1,700 employees to be laid off. About 100 security guards and managers are still paid to look after the factory as the government debates whether to revive or sell it. The company has lost about $319 million since 2002.
"I've lost a lot of hair over the last 20 years trying to work out why governments continue to throw money at these companies," says Oxus Fund Management's Bhalla. Hindustan Cables' factories near Kolkata and Hyderabad are littered with moss-covered debris. Workers leave their subsidised housing to punch time cards in and out twice a day before returning home or seeking out alternate sources of income. Employees such as P Nageshwar Rao, 46, who has worked at the company's Hyderabad plant since 1995, say they are unlikely to find new jobs after years of inactivity at the government's expense.
"It's been painful to be unwanted and unproductive," said Rao. "Nobody likes to sit idle, even if you are paid for it."