According to the annual report on the working of industrial and commercial undertakings of the Central Government for 1997-98, investment grew by Rs 12,255 crore from Rs 19,1799 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 20,4054 crore in 1997-98.The gross margin (profit before interest, depreciation and tax) increased from Rs 44,809 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 52,615 crore in 1997-98 accompanied by an increase in gross sales by Rs 30,341 crore from Rs 2,54,910 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 2,85,251 crore in 1997-98. The growth rate in gross sales works out to 11.9 per cent in 1997-98 compared to the previous year.

The gross internal resource generation has also shown a substantial increase of 22.8 per cent, from Rs 25,585 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 31,432 crore in 1997-98, a jump of Rs 5,847 crore. Thepublic sector has also bucked the general downtrend on the export front with a marginal improvement in export earnings from Rs 16,359 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 18,147 crore in 1997-98. For 1997-98, seven enterprises declared dividend, including tax on dividends totalling Rs 4,050.68 crore against dividends of Rs 3,083.76 crore declared by 81 enterprises during the previous year.

Costly inventories are down in terms of number of days of cost of production/sale to 60 days in 1997-98 compared to 68 days in 1996-97. The burden of surplus labour has been marginally reduced with the decrease in the number of regular employees from 19.78 lakh to 19.65 lakh in the period under review.

Out of 108 enterprises which signed the memorandum of understanding with their respective administrative ministries, 45 have been rated as excellent and 25 very good.

The survey for 1997-98 covers 240 central public sector enterprises and excludes eight companies with Central government investment but without direct responsibilityfor management, six insurance companies and two financial institutions.