Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd gets Cabinet nod for closure

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved closure of Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd (HFL), a central public sector enterprise with just 88 employees.

The decision was taken in a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“CCEA approves closure of HFL, a central public sector enterprise under the department of chemicals and petrochemicals,” an official statement said.

HFL has been making losses since 2013-14 and has negative net worth. As on March 31, 2019, it had accumulated losses of Rs 62.81 crore and net worth of (-) Rs 43.20 crore.

It was also registered with the erstwhile Board for Industrial and Financial Construction (BIFR) as a sick company.

According to the statement, financial implications of the proposal for the closure involve providing a support of Rs 77.20 crore to the company in the form of interest free loan for settling closure related liabilities of HFL.

The liabilities include implementation of VRS/VSS, payment of outstanding salary and statutory dues, and repayment of SBI working capital credit and salary/wages and administrative expenses of HFL skeletal staff to be retained for implementing the closure plan for two years.

It said the interest free loan is proposed to be repaid from the proceeds of the disposal of

land and other assets of HFL after settling all the liabilities relating to closure of the company.

If the land/assets sale proceeds are not sufficient to fully repay the loan amount, then the balance loan amount is to be written off, it said.