Visakhapatnam, Jan 8 (KNN) Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) here are facing losses up to Rs 6 crore per month, as Heavy Plates and Vessels Plant (HPVP), the 17th division of BHEL is not placing work orders after the merger of the Bharat Heavy Plate and Vessels with it.

“Post-merger, the BHPV unit has stopped placing orders with the local vendors here. Due to this the industry is incurring huge loss,” President of Visakha Autonagar Small Scale Industrialists Welfare Association, Ramakrishna Narapareddy told KNN.

“Earlier, BHPV was getting orders from BHEL units at Hyderabad and Trichi. Now it is not getting orders from the two units. BHEL has promised to give orders once it gets a big contract from IOC, Haldia in a month or two,” he added.

As per the Public Procurement Policy of 2012, Public Sector Units have to do 20 per cent of their sourcing from the MSMEs.

Many small vendors here depend directly or indirectly on the public sector units.

Narapareddy further said that most of the PSUs are mostly unaware of the Public Procurement Policy.

“We have appealed to the Department of Industries, Government of Andhra Pradesh, MSME Development Institute in Hyderabad and the Vizag chapter to conduct awareness programmes for all public sector undertakings such as Hindustan Shipyard, HPCL Refinery, NTPC, Port Trust, BHEL and HPVP.  We hope there will be results soon,” he said.

As part of the rehabilitation scheme approved by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), Bharat Heavy Plate and Vessels Ltd (BHPV) was merged with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). Until the merger, BHPV was a wholly-owned subsidiary of BHEL.

Through the merger, BHPV has become the 17th manufacturing unit of BHEL. The unit is now called the Heavy Plates and Vessels Plant (HPVP), Vishakhapatnam.
The city-based plant had a turnover of Rs 243.62 crore last year. (KNN/ES/SD)