(a) whether attention of the Government has been drawn to the news item captioned `SAIL wage pact to cost Rs.320 crore` appearing in `The Business Standard` dated February 14, 2001;
(b) if so, whether the SAIL propose to pay Rs.320 crore to settle the wages of its executives which are pending since 1997;
(c) if so, the manner in which the SAIL proposes to mobilise such a huge funds for its executives; and
(d) the present financial position of the SAIL?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR STEEL (SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY)
(a) Yes, sir.
(b) The additional financial implications of pay revision of Executives of SAIL will be approximately 170 crores per annum.
(c) According to SAIL the additional expenditure on pay revision will be met from internal resources generated through cost reduction, business restructuring, higher productivity, improvement in techno-economic factors, low inventory etc.
(d) SAIL has incurred a loss of Rs.698 Crores up to December 2000 in the current financial year against the loss of Rs.2065 Crores in the corresponding period last year showing reduction of loss by 66%.