Giving this information in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, minister of state for steel Braja Kishore Tripathy said the company had made net refund of Rs 150.38 crore under the public deposit scheme and Rs 428.83 crore under foreign currency borrowings during the year.

The company had repaid debts from internal generation through reduction in inventories, he said adding that Rs 1,102.50 crore had also been mobilised by bonds with credit enhancement through Government of India guarantee.

The minister also informed the House that among the SAIL plants, Rourkela had incurred a loss of Rs 704 crore during the year followed by Durgapur Rs 651 crore, Alloy Steel Plant Durgapur Rs 260 crore, Iisco Rs 210 crore, Salem plant, Rs 142 crore and Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Rs 91 crore.

In addition, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (Visakhapatnam Steel Plant) had incurred a loss of Rs 568 crore during the year, the minister said.

He said whereas government had approved a plan for the business and financial restructuring of SAIL with a view to increasing its competitiveness and making it profitable, for VSP, the selloff panel had recommended writing off of the accumulated losses of the company up to March 31, 1999 and disinvestment of equity of not less than 51 per cent.

For revival of Iisco, the minister said the government had recently approved a proposal of SAIL for seting up a joint venture company with a view to making the operations of the plant viable.

SAIL had accordingly invited "expression of interest " from domestic and overseas companies for participating in the proposed joint venture, he said.

For revival of steel industry in private sector, the minister said government had allowed unrestricted flow of foreign direct investment and had constituted a high-level committee to recommend measures for addressing the problems of the industry. The "round table on steel" held last year, he said had made recommendations to improve te functioning of the steel sector which included rationalisation of excise and customs duty, streamlining of export measures.