Imphal, September 13: Commerce and Industries Minister N Mangi today said that the State Government will allow private party to run the Manipur Spinning Mill if they are willing to do so.

Interacting with media persons, the Minister who visited the site of the Mill, said that the Government is considering the option of handing over the Mill if any private party approach them before completion of the ongoing liquidation process of the Mill.

Interested party/parties should apply formally through the Secretary (Industries) or Director (Industries), if they want to take over the Mill, the Minister informed.

The State Government has already taken a decision to dispose off the Mill, if no private party shows any desire in running the Mill, Mangi added.

Having a capacity of 25,000 spindles, Manipur Spinning Mill was set up in 1985 with the stated objective of producing yarn commercially.

But the Mill ceased to operate since 2002 due to various reasons.

The Mill had never been able to produce yarn to its full capacity.

The last consignment that the Mill had produced is said to be a meager 330 bundles.

The process for abolishing the Mill and retrenchment of its 70 regular administrative staff and 433 workers is under process following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the State Government and the Union Ministry of Finance.

The Commerce and Industries Minister further informed that State Government has so far spent Rs 8.32 crores in paying pension benefits to the retrenched staff and workers.

On the remaining assets and liability of the Mill, Special Secretary (Industries) RK Nimai, who accompanied the Minister during the trip, informed media persons that the Mill has an asset worth Rs 6.5 crores.

This includes 30 acres of land on which the Mill has been constructed, the building and machineries.

The amount of State share expended in running the Mill so far is Rs 17 crores and the liabilities include Rs 3.5 crores for loan taken from IDBI besides another Rs 13 lakhs to be paid to cotton suppliers.

As the State Government had guaranteed while taking the loan from IDBI, the due pending amount is likely to be deducted from State income sources, Nimai said.

It may be noted here that the actual loan amount taken from IDBI at the time of establishing the Mill was just Rs 39 lakhs.

But as the recurring interest were not paid in time, the amount payable to the financial institution is now a whopping Rs 3.5 crores.

However, Nimai expressed confidence that the interest amount payable might be considered by IDBI if the State Government negotiates with the authorities of the financing institution.

As per the agreement, State Government was to provide its share for running the Mill within 3 years of its functioning.

But it took ten years due to financial problem thereby impeding in the growth of the Mill, Nimai noted.

The Managing Director of the Mill Chaoba Singh, who also interacted with the media persons, pointed out shortage of power, raw materials, lack of marketing facilities and the inherent shortfalls of employing seasonal workers among others as reason for the failure of the Mill.

The Manipur Spinning Mill is one among the non-profitable PSUs which have to be closed down as per the MoU signed between the State Government and the Centre as part of the resource mobilisation move.

Comment