this story originally appeared in on nov 3 2012 new delhi prime minister manmohan singhs message to chiefs of cashrich state enterprises was loud and clear dont sit on huge piles of cash invest or pay dividends as of 201112 according to et estimates psus were sitting on cash of close to two lakh crores the actual figure is almost certainly more since we only included large listed psus and while the central government owns a few hundred psus just five of them coal india ongc nmdc ntpc and oil india account for around rs 135 lakh crore of the total cash surplus of psus when asked about their expansion plans by et indias cash rich psus had ready answers whether or not they will actually put their money where their mouths are is a different matter part of the problem is the climate of uncertainty created by having to operate under constant scrutiny of a range of oversight bodies such as the comptroller and auditor general cag and the central vigilance commission cvc if you take business risk you risk your job if you dont take investment decisions maximum you could be transferred a senior executive working in ongc oil videsh said requesting anonymity oil giants oil and natural gas corp ongc says the cash surplus is required for its operations in the capital intensive oil and gas exploration business for the current fiscal ending march 31 ongc has a planned expenditure of rs 33065 crore the company told et the second biggest exploration firm oil india ltd too has substantial spending plans oil india has a surplus of rs 13000 crore but we intend to invest rs 19000 crore in the 12th plan and this excludes acquisitions and diversification says oil india directorfinance tk ananth kumar ongc and oil india have to invest continuously on seismic surveys exploratory drilling developmental drilling capital engineering projects rd joint ventures and valuechain integration projects given the cash balances both companies expect to fund their investments largely through internal accruals ongc said it was wrong to think that the surplus was idle and said it was needed for discharging various milestone payments such as corporate tax dividend to shareholders including the govt dividend tax major contractual milestone payments for companys activities on exploration development production etc coal and power coal india intends to spend its surpluses on equipment procurement followed by opening of new mines and infrastructure development opening of coal washeries on buildoperate maintain basis with participation from private entrepreneurs is another option for investment that cil is seriously exploring expenditure on rr schemes and land procurement is also considerable the company told et cil is also planning to expedite the creation of railway infrastructure there are many projects where there is huge production potential but absence of railway infrastructure for coal evacuation has a slow down affect on production the company said if this issue is resolved speedily not only increased quantities of coal would be available to