Coal scam hit Bhel's performance: Heavy Industries Minister

Coal scam adversely affected the business of state-run power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), during the three fiscals to 2014-15 even as the company doubled its production capacity, Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete said today.

"BHEL's core function is that of power equipment manufacturing. However, in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 the power generation was halted due to coal scam," the minister said at a press conference here.

"New power projects were not commisioned while BHEL doubled its manufacturing capacity to aid generation of 20,000 MW power leading to its financial troubles," he said.

State-run power equipment maker BHEL's standalone net profit declined 59.5 % to Rs 359.58 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2016, due to lower income from operations.

On the consolidated basis, BHEL posted a net loss of Rs 895.93 crore for the year ended March 31, 2016.

Besides, Joint Secretary in the Department of Public Enterprises Rajesh K Chaudhry said that central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) are yet to sign MoUs due to the revision in MoU guidelines in December.

"The negotiations regarding MoU are going on according to the new guidelines. The preliminary negotiations of 80 big PSUs like Maharatnas and Navratnas have been completed while targets of 60 PSUs have been fixed," Chaudhry said.

He cited the revision in guidelines as the reason behind the delay in signing of MoUs, adding that the negotiations in this regard will be completed by month-end or July first week.

The guidelines were revised with an objective to have stringent evaluation of performance of CPSEs under MoU system.