Being a power sector professional I thought I will spend some time understanding what this '50 years of engineering excellence' has brought to the majority share holder. the average Indian citizen, you and me.
Here are the highlights:
- In a Sales of Rs. 11596 Cr, BHEL has reported a loss of Rs. 292.89 Cr.
- Trade receivables at the end of the quarter was Rs. 25868 Cr. To put it in perspective, last year sales was Rs. 29541 Cr (net of taxes). So 87 % of last year Sales is on credit.
- Trade payables is Rs. 7944 Cr. 6 months cost of materials is Rs. 6953 Cr.
- Employee expenses stands marginally higher at Rs. 1481 Cr ~ 25% of sales.
My take :
- Make In India was an actionable diktat in the first 20 years of independence. Later it became a slogan. The current effort to resuscitate this proven remedy to many of our economies ills, hope succeeds.
- Administration of contracts and honouring of contractual commitments, on the whole and in particular in power sector is so lax that utilities can arbitrarily, function.
- Poor negotiating skills of central and state utilities, with international funding agencies, have resulted in imports of capital goods, over decades, at the cost of local 'Engineering excellence'.
- Chasing a mirage of saving on initial capital costs and artificially driving for L1 bids across equipment and services, has resulted in under performance, under recovery of costs, eroding capital of major industries.
- No planned hand holding of development of technology or solutions is practiced with equipment majors by even central utilities, leaving the country ever dependant on import of technology.
The current government has its task cutout to address this issue on an urgent basis.
No comments:
Post a Comment