I will now take certain specific points from the discussion. I would take first of all the question of public sector undertakings because this is discussed constantly and this will have to be discussed constantly. I know, that performance of every public sector undertaking will be discussed through questions and other debates in this House and it is good that the country is always aware of it. But at the same time I would make a humble suggestion that one should not make a generalisation or rather a sweeping statement. I was pained particularly when such a statement came from Mr. Goray also. I thought I should give some detailed information about it because he said that there was absolutely no improvement in the public sector. I know that there is enough scope for improvement. It is one of the important sectors in which we will have to concentrate our efforts in the years to come, if at all we have to command the heights of economy, in the real sense. And if there is going to be any meaning to our march towards socialism, the public sector will have to give a better performance; I do not deny that. But at the same time to say that there is no improvement at all would be rather very unfair. I would like to say, Sir, that while I am acutely conscious of the deficiencies of the public Sector, I must mention that during 1969-70 the performance of the public sector shown an improvement in comparison with the previous years. Of the 81 running concerns 49 made a profit of Rs.72.27 crores. So I would like to mention that more than 50 per cent of the public enterprises are making profit.
Shri N. G. Goray : What is the capital invested?
Shri Y. B. Chavan : I will come to that. Of course the point of your main criticism is valid. I am not avoiding your criticism; I am just considering certain aspects of your criticism. In the major investment sector which is very vital for our growth, the steel sector, we are really speaking lagging behind. There we are impling; I quite concede that. But to create a climate that the public sector is not making any contribution or giving an all round bad performance would be wrong. As I said forty nine concerns were making a profit of Rs.72.27 crores as against 41 in 1968-69. Thirty two enterprises including Hindustan Steel have made a net loss of Rs.76 crores. This is also true. Certainly there are some concerns which are making losses. Then, Sir, the average return on the capital employed in for depreciation was 4.2 percent as against return of 2.7 per cent in 1968-69. In 1969-70 twenty-four enterprises declared dividends ranging from 3 per cent to 21 per cent. When you want to make a judgement on the public sector you will take an overall picture of the public sector and not make just a sweeping statement. In another sphere the public sector has made a more useful contribution and that is in the field of earning foreign exchange for our country. We have achieved significant results in this direction. Now, we can classify the public sector, into two classes, one is the manufacturing enterprises and the other non-manufacturing enterprises. In 1965-66 exports by manufacturing enterprises in the public sector were to the tune of Rs.4.6 crores and in 1969-70 these exports have reached the level of Rs.84.6 crores. Similarly earnings of foreign exchange by aviation, shipping and ship repairing concerns etc. which are in non-manufacturing class have also recorded a marked increase from Rs.30 crores in 1965-66 To Rs.85.2 crores in 1969-70. I am just mentioning these figures and I would request Members to keep them in their mind so that when they criticise, when they try to assess the performance of the public sector, they can find that, it is not all so very bad and one need not be pessimistic about them. I would like to tell Hon. Members that we ourselves are very much concerned about the shortfalls in expenditure; particularly in the case of the public sector. The Prime Minister herself has taken personal interest in these matters and we are trying to take certain steps. I do not want to go on detailing all those steps. We have asked every Ministry to have some sort of a task Force to see where the deficiencies are, to anticipate deficits and to determine what remedial measures could be taken. The Finance Ministry is also, concerned to a certain extent and certainly we will go into this matter. We have identified certain problems.
