AGARTALA / KOLKATA, June 11 (TIWN): Tripura Chief Minster Manik Sarkar and his lameduck Industry Minister Tapan Chakraborty should hold their heads in shame as their counterparts in West Bengal driving State run corporations into massive profits, whereas Tripura's every industry sector, even Handloom & Handicrafts sector running into multi-crore losses due to Govt's poor vision and inept officials like Industry Secretary M.Nagaraju. West Bengal Handicraft Development Corporation, Manjusha, on Friday reported its maiden operational profit of Rs 3.87 crore for 2015-16 after its inception in 1978, while the State Handloom Weavers Society, Tantuja, made an operational profit of Rs 3.3 crore in 2015-16. However, CAG’s evaluation of Tripura Handloom & Handicraft corporation (THHC) points out the massive corruption, mis-management, nepotism and overall inefficiency plagued management in Industry & Commerce Dept,in Handloom,Handicraft sectors.

 As per CAG, THHC had incurred operational losses during all the five years from 2008-09 to 2012-13 aggregating ` 33.77 crores. Bengal govt said transformation was possible due to better management practices, planned interventions for business enhancement, wider product base and quality management under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. 

The sales targets set in the MoUs by the Tripura Handloom & Handicraft corporation (THHC) for the years 2008-09 to 2012-13 were neither achieved nor monitored.

As per the profitability statement prepared by Audit for the year 2012-13, 42 out of 43 emporiums operated by the Tripura Handloom & Handicraft corporation (THHC)  incurred losses.

THHC / Purbasha’s accumulation of inventory and debtors due to their poor management resulted in severe strain on working capital.

Despite capital infusion of` 27.93 crores by the State Government during 2008-13, the entire paid up capital of the THHC / ‘Purbahsa’ was wiped off by the losses and the net worth of the Company had become negative”.

In contrast, Mamata Banerjee led Bengal Govt's good planning resulted State run corporations into profits.

"Established in 1978 Manjusha never made a profit and ran on government subsidy. In its 37 years' history Manjusha made an operational profit for the first time in 2015-16 amounting to Rs 3.87 crore which does not include any government subsidy," a statement said.

Its business turnover clocked the highest ever to Rs 46.75 crore in the last fiscal.

Tantuja, the Bengal State Handloom Weavers Society, continued to be in profit for successive three years. It reported a business turnover of Rs 123 crore in 2015-16 against an operational profit of Rs 3.3 crore.

"Starting with a modest profit of Rs 25 lakh in 2013-14 after a gap of 40 years it went on to make an operational profit of Rs 2.5 crore in 2014-15," the statement from Bengal Govt said.

CAG reported that monitoring activities and the internal control system of the 'Purbasha' were found to be deficient. Undue delay in execution of Urban Haat Project resulted in cost escalation of Rs. 2.49 crores along with non-attainment of its objectives.

Handloom industry in the State of Tripura plays a dominant role in the economic development of the rural people by providing gainful employment.

The State is also known for the rich diversity of its handicraft products. At present,Purbasha has been trading mainly in the Handloom/Handicraft items being procured from clusters of weavers/artisans within the State.

Tripura's handloom sector  got 43 sales outlets named as emporia under the brand name “Purbasha” spread across four States viz., Tripura (33), Assam (3), West Bengal (6), and New Delhi (1) for selling its products. Besides, the Company had two Power loom Units (at Indranagar and Badharghat), one Common Facility Centre and two Central Procurement Stores.
 
It may be seen from above that MOU sales targets were not achieved in any of the five years. As per the MOU entered into during 2008-09, the sales targets for nextfour years from 2009-10 to 2012-13 were fixed at ` 4.65 crore, ` 5.30 crore,` 6.10 crore, ` 7.00 crore respectively based on the sales projections made for the respective years.

It was, however, observed that the annual sales targets for the respective years were fixed at significantly lower side than the projections made during 2008-09 based on previous years’ sales performance. The fixation of sales targets at lower values than the projections made in 2008-09 was indicative of the inadequacy of Company’s efforts towards marketing and sales promotion.

It furtherreflected that the annual targets were merely based on the previous years’ sales without any study or evaluation of the potentials of the Company and its product. Though the MOU provided for monitoring of Company’s performance on quarterly basis, in practice, however, there was no such monitoring done by the Government.

The sales targets provided under MOU were not bifurcated for Government and private sales as the Government sales was merely a captive sales16. Therefore, the Company’s actual performance with reference to private sales in the competitive environment could not be judged or monitored by the Government..

 did not analyse unit-wise profitability of various emporia. Consequently, meaningful review of performance of emporia did not exist. Unit wise profitability statement for the year 2012-13 as prepared by Audit and summarized revealed the following:

1).Out of total 43 emporiams of the Company (THHC), only one emporium (viz. New Delhi emporium) earned profits and all the remaining 42 emporia (98 per cent) had incurred losses during the year. These losses have been arrived at without apportioning the Head Office overheads;

2).Only two of these forty three units were able to generate adequate contribution to meet their salary expenditure.
1. H.O. Complex, Agartala and 2. New Delhi
3). Margin on sales generated by six18 out of forty three units was not adequate to meet even their operational expenditure like electricity charges.
In other words, Tripura's Industry Department, Handloom & Handicraft corporation in deep plunge as Industry Minister Tapan Chakraborty has no clue, neither has any knowledge or management expertise to handle this crisis.

As most of the inept officials occupying chairs of Handloom & Handicraft corporation, Industry Department, so Tripura's traditional Handloom & Handicraft Industry heading towards grave.

Chief Minister hand picked many of his close comrades to head key Ministries of State - most these inefficient Ministers only qualification is 'loyality' to CM.  

Unfortunately, Tripura's Industry Dept being headed by one of the most dumb and non-performer Cabinet Minister Tapan Chakraborty.