लोकपाल · Investigative Findings
Four state firms carried 74.19% of CPSE losses even as India's total narrowed
India's loss-making CPSEs posted an aggregate ₹21,011 crore loss in FY 2023-24 — down from ₹28,938 crore a year earlier — yet just four firms, led by BSNL and Vizag Steel, accounted for 74.19% of it.
The number the survey wants you to see
The Department of Public Enterprises' own Public Enterprises Survey 2023-24 opens with genuinely good news: the aggregate loss of loss-incurring Central Public Sector Enterprises fell to ₹21,011 crore in FY 2023-24 from ₹28,938 crore a year earlier. That is a reduction of around ₹7,927 crore — a real, measurable improvement the government is entitled to claim. Of 272 operating CPSEs, 58 still reported a net loss, together amounting to ₹0.21 lakh crore. The topline trend is unambiguously in the right direction. But an aggregate that is shrinking can still hide where the damage is concentrated, and this is exactly where the survey's own tables become uncomfortable reading.
Four firms, three-quarters of the loss
Strip away the aggregate and the picture narrows sharply. Just four enterprises — Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. and Bharat Petro Resources Ltd. — accounted for 74.19% of the entire loss pool in FY 2023-24. Widen the lens only slightly and the highest 10 loss-incurring CPSEs absorbed 92.06% of all losses. In other words, the remaining loss-makers are, collectively, almost a rounding error. This is not a system-wide bleed; it is a handful of large, structurally troubled state firms dragging down an otherwise recovering portfolio. Scrutiny and reform effort should follow that concentration, rather than the comforting headline average.
BSNL and MTNL: the telecom anchor
Two of the four biggest losers are state telecom carriers. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. posted the single largest net loss of any CPSE — ₹5,370.73 crore, a 25.56% share of the aggregate loss on its own. The survey is careful to note improvement: BSNL's loss narrowed from ₹0.08 lakh crore in FY 2022-23 to ₹0.05 lakh crore in FY 2023-24. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. ranks third on the same list. That a single carrier accounts for more than a quarter of every rupee lost across loss-making CPSEs — even after improving — shows how much of the public sector's red ink is tied to one legacy telecom problem the state has been managing for years.
Steel's share: Vizag and NMDC
The other pillar of the loss pool is steel. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. — the Visakhapatnam-based producer widely known as Vizag Steel — reported a net loss of ₹4,848.86 crore, a 23.08% share of the aggregate, making it the second-largest loss-maker in the country. NMDC Steel Ltd. ranks fifth on the highest-10 list. Between telecom and steel, four of the five largest loss-makers sit in just two sectors — a signal that the CPSE loss problem is not diffuse mismanagement but sector-specific distress in enterprises exposed to heavy fixed costs, legacy obligations and volatile commodity or technology cycles. Targeted turnaround plans, not blanket reassurance, are what these numbers argue for.
The count that keeps rising
One trend runs against the survey's optimistic grain. The number of CPSEs under closure, liquidation or otherwise non-operating rose to 72 in FY 2023-24 from 64 in FY 2022-23 — and stood at just 14 in FY 2019-20. So even as reported losses shrink, the roster of enterprises that have effectively stopped functioning keeps climbing. Some of this reflects deliberate policy: winding down unviable units is itself a form of cleanup, and the government can reasonably frame it that way. But a steadily lengthening list of dormant state companies is also a standing question about capital, land and public money locked in entities that no longer produce anything — and about how long the wind-down pipeline is allowed to run.
What the survey's own numbers ask for
The honest reading of the Public Enterprises Survey 2023-24 is two-sided. The government can fairly point to a reduction of around ₹7,927 crore in aggregate CPSE losses, down to ₹21,011 crore. But its own tables show that improvement is thin and concentrated: 74.19% of the loss sits with four firms and 92.06% with ten, chiefly BSNL, MTNL, Vizag Steel and NMDC Steel, while the count of non-operating CPSEs has climbed to 72. The conclusion is not blame but focus. Aggregate averages will keep improving on paper; the real test is whether these named, sector-specific loss-makers are turned around or wound down on a clear timeline — and whether Parliament and the public are given that firm-by-firm accountability rather than a reassuring total.
Losses fell by around ₹7,927 crore, but 92.06% of what remained sat with just ten enterprises.
What this investigation rests on
Every figure is drawn from public Government of India records — read them at source.
A लोकपाल investigation is built entirely from public Government of India data — official reports, audits, budgets and filings — with every figure reconciled to the source cited above. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →