The Industries Department will conduct a study on the functioning of Hindustan Newsprint Limited (HNL) to ascertain facts and to take a stand on the Centre’s move to privatise the company.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The study report will be submitted within a week.
The meeting was attended by Industries Minister A.C. Moideen, MLA C.K. Asha, CITU State president Anathalavattom Anandan, Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) Paul Antony, Additional Chief Secretary (Planning) V. S. Senthil, HNL Managing Director R. Gopala Rao and CITU representative P. Suresh.
The managing director of the company said that till 2009, HNL had been running profitably.
₹40-crore annual loss
It suffered losses after the import duty was reduced. At present, there is no import levy at all. The average annual loss is now ₹40 crore.
With the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax, and the use of new technology, manufacturing expenditure has come down since the past one month.
The State government has given 700 acres of land to HNL and the Centre’s decision is to sell off the company, including the land.
