Salary dues at 16 PSUs cleared

The government on Thursday decided to provide budgetary support of Rs 141.41 crore (Rs 1.41 billion) to 16 central public sector undertakings to enable them to pay pending salaries and statutory dues of their employees.

The support to the PSUs would clear off the salaries and statutory dues they owe to their employees till Match 31, 2005, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

All the 16 PSUs fall under the ministry of heavy industry and owe Rs 98.43 crore (Rs 984.3 million) as salaries to their employees and Rs 42.98 crore (Rs 429.8 million) as statutory dues.

Last year, the government had paid Rs 517.543 crore (Rs 5.17 billion) to 24 PSUs under Ministry of Heavy Industry for paying salaries and other dues of their employees till June 2004.

Of these 24 companies, eight have managed to make enough money to pay salaries of their employees this time around.

Today's decision covers the period from August 2004 and March 2005 and benefits employees of Andrew Yule, Hindustan Cables, Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels and HMT Watches among others.

While Hindustan Cables owes Rs 63.32 crore (Rs 633.2 million) to its employees, dues of HMT (watches) to its employees amount to Rs 22.11 crore (Rs 221.1 million) and Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels has to pay Rs 16.25 crore (Rs 162.5 million) to its staff.