When cash-strapped Himachal Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC), running scores of hotels in the state, is making an effort to recover bad debts from the debtors, an RTI request has made a startling revelation: the state government itself is the biggest defaulter and owes Rs 2,085,881.31 to the corporation.
Information procured by RTI activist Debashish Bhattacharya under the RTI Act has revealed the state owes Rs 20,58 8131 out of a total bad debt of Rs 2,39,26783, while Rs 33,38622 is to be recovered from private parties.
HPTDC, which was a profit-making PSU till a few years back, is now in the red with accumulated losses of Rs 12.666 crore, and the state government had constituted a review committee headed by former bureaucrat Tarun Sridhar some time back to pull the corporation out of the red and fulfill its commitment to pay salaries and dues of pensioners as directed by HP High Court.
The committee had asked the HPTDC management to make a serious effort to recover bad debt from the debtors and the corporation had recovered Rs 50, 10394 from the state government and Rs 13, 29405 from the private parties.
The state government owes Rs 36, 19301 to Hotel Holiday Home Shimla, Rs 24, 88981 towards Hotel Peter Hoff Shimla, Rs 30, 44141 to hotels at Dharamshala and Bhagsu, and Rs 14, 38683 to hotels in Chamba and Dalhousie complex.
Interestingly, debt in HPTDC-run hotels, which are frequently used by the state government to accommodate its state guests and officials for various functions, is quite high.
The private parties owe the highest Rs 4,66,531 to hotels in Dharamshala and Bhagsu, Rs 38,4518 to Hotel Holiday Home, Rs 2,42,260 to hotels of Chamba -Dalhousie complex, and Rs 2,28931 to Hotel Peter Hoff Shimla.
