Shimla, Mar 19 (IANS): The public sector undertakings (PSUs) in Himachal Pradesh continued to drain on fund-starved government with their cumulative losses standing at Rs.2,188 crore till March 2012, says a report.

The report tabled in the ongoing budget session said the aggregate losses of PSUs rose to Rs.2,188 crore at the close of 2011-12 from Rs.1,666 crore in March 2011, which was Rs.522 crore more.

It said 12 of the 20 PSUs have been in the red. Even the remaining ones have recorded marginal profits during the year.

Interestingly, government investment in the PSUs increased from Rs.1,877 crore to Rs.2,022 crore during that period.

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board, the state's largest undertaking with over 25,000 employees tops the list of loss-making PSUs with a cumulative loss of Rs.1,406 crore, including Rs.512 crore in 2011-12, till March 31, 2012.

The Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation, with a fleet over 1,900 buses has recorded cumulative losses of Rs.653 crore. Its losses were Rs.572.79 crore upto March 31, 2011, while it was Rs.230.06 crore in 2010.

Surprisingly, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corp, which claimed that the annual tourist arrivals in the state was over 1.6 crore mark in 2012 has cumulative losses of Rs.16.77 crore.

The Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corp. (HPMC), which is mainly marketing apple juice concentrate has incurred losses of Rs.69.94 crore, while the state forest corporation and state Handloom and Handicraft Corporation suffered losses of Rs.35.82 crore and Rs.20.38 crore respectively.

The profit-making PSUs included the Housing and Urban Development Authority, which earned profit amounting to Rs. 127.32 crore.