Andhra Pradesh includes inflated Satyam figures in IT export revenues

The Andhra Pradesh government Thursday said the state has posted a 24.5 percent growth in information technology export revenues during 2008-09, higher than the projected national growth of 20.65 percent, but this includes the inflated figures submitted by the scam-tainted Satyam Computer Services.

The exports during the year were Rs.32,509 crore (Rs.325.09 billion/$6.79 billion) against Rs.26,122 crore (Rs.261.22 billion/$5.45 billion) during 2007-08. The growth rate, however, has come down to 24.5 percent from 41 percent in the previous year.

The IT/ITES export figures for the last financial year include Rs.4,231.93 crore (Rs.42.31 billion/$877.7 million) of Satyam, making it the top most exporter. The fraud-hit IT major had claimed exports of Rs.3,331.30 (Rs.33.31 billion/$689.6 million) crore during 2007-08.

Officials of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) here said they had to go by the figures submitted by the previous management of Satyam.

"We have included the figures after due certification process," STPI Hyderabad director P. Venugopal told a news conference Thursday.

He, however, hastened to add that validation of the same would be done only in September.

Satyam founder and former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju shocked corporate India in January this by admitting to committing a Rs.7,800-crore (Rs.78 billion/$1.6 billion) accounting fraud by inflating the company's profits over several years.

Tech Mahindra bought Satyam in an open auction in April and last month re-named it as Mahindra Satyam.

STPI director general N. Krishnan said there could be 5 to 10 percent variation in the export figures submitted by the company and the actual exports. The audited figures will be available in August or September, he said.

Krishnan said the exports from STPI units were estimated at Rs.2,046.62 billion (Rs.204,662 crore) against Rs.1,801.55 billion (Rs.180,155 crore) 2007-08.

"The national growth rate has been lower than that of Andhra Pradesh," he said.

Last updated on Jul 2^nd, 2009 at 19:30 pm IST--IANS