State-run Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) on Thursday paid its highest-ever dividend of Rs 14.22 crore for 2009-10 to Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.
“I am extremely happy that irrespective of economic slow down and increase in the operating expenses, CWC has declared an all time high dividend. It is a pleasant change to see a PSU declaring this kind of dividend,” Pawar said after accepting the cheque in New Delhi.
He said that CWC is focusing on building storage facilities for foodgrains keeping in mind the national priority.
CWC has a big plan to construct godowns on its own land to store foodgrains to the extent of four lakh tonnes in the next two years, besides creating 5.82 lakh tonnes of storage capacity under PEG-2009 scheme in Gujarat, Maharasthra and Kerala, he added.
Currently, CWC operates 482 warehouses with a total storage capacity of 105.97 lakh tonnes, of which the storage space for foodgrains is about 43.88 lakh tonnes.
According to CWC Managing Director B B Pattanaik, who presented the cheque, the Corporation has achieved the highest turnover of Rs 987.95 crore in the 2009-10 fiscal, against Rs 849.25 crore in the previous year, said the Corporation. The post tax profit for 2009-10 was 130.52 crore, up by 48.39 per cent from previous year, he said.
This high performance could be achieved due to increase in storage capacity by about one lakh tonne for foodgrains and an improvement in capacity utilisation to 85 per cent as against 82 per cent of the previous year, he said.
Pattanaik, however, said that the turnover could have risen substantially had the cost of storage been revised upward by the government. “Currently, storage cost for 50 kg of foodgrains is only Rs 2.06 per 50 kg for a month based on the base year 2005-06.”
Besides, handling of containers, revenue earned out of container rail transport operations and pest control activities also registered growth, he added.
Courtsey:PTI