Closure of Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd. Approved by the Union Cabinet Owing to Prolonged Company Losses

The Union Cabinet has approved the closure of Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd (HFL), a public sector enterprise with employee count of only 88. The decision was taken in a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), a central public sector enterprise under the department of chemicals and petrochemicals. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The decision was taken after considering that HFL has been making losses since 2013-14 and has negative net worth. As on March 31, 2019, the company accumulated loss of INR 628 million and a net worth of (-)432 million. The company has also been registered as a ‘sick company’ with the erstwhile Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). Unviable scale of operations, outdated technologies, old plants and only one revenue generating product which holds no strategic significance has made sustainable revival of HFL economically unviable. HFL’s operations will be completely non-viable from March 2020 onwards. HFL is a subsidiary of Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited (HOCL) and is engaged in the manufacture of Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (PTFE) and Chloro Di Fluoro Methane.