New Delhi, Sep 7 (IANS): Five states, including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, attracted about half the total investment of Rs.550,000 crore by central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) between 2008-09 and 2012-13, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said.

Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were among the top five investment destinations for CPSEs between 2008-09 and 2012-13, Assocham said in a study released here Sunday.

Maharashtra alone claimed 20 percent of total gross investments, followed by Andhra Pradesh (8.4 percent), Tamil Nadu (8.1 percent), Odisha (6.7 percent) and Uttar Pradesh (6.2 percent).

Other major beneficiaries included West Bengal (5.3 percent), Chhattisgarh (4.8 percent), Assam (3.9 percent), Madhya Pradesh (3.8 percent) and Himachal Pradesh (3.4 percent).

"The investment would have been much more with improved employment generation had there not been delays in execution and implementation of the new projects," the study said.

States at the bottom of the investment destinations include some of the developed states like Gujarat, Karnakata and Haryana, the study shows.

The bottom-rung states include Bihar (3.2 percent), Gujarat (2.8 percent), Karnataka (2.5 percent), Jharkhand (1.9 percent), Kerala (1.5 percent), Rajasthan (1.1 percent), Punjab (0.7 percent) and Haryana (0.6 percent).

There were, in all, 582 projects under implementation in the central sector as on June last year. Out of these, 311 projects reported time delays ranging from one month to 240 months which could have had a negative impact on employment, the report said.

"Despite talks of autonomy, the public sector investment decisions are influenced by several factors other than pure commercial considerations," Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat said.

CPSEs investment growth rate was recorded at 9.05 percent in 2012-13 on a year-on-year basis as compared to 13.42 percent in 2011-12, 9.48 percent in 2010-11 and 15.52 percent in 2009-10, the study said.

Overall net profit of all 229 CPSEs during 2012-13 stood at Rs.115,000 crore compared to Rs.98,000 crore during 2011-12, which is an increase of 17.36 percent.

"The CPSEs managed to rake in a smart growth in net profit despite difficult years in the global and domestic economy," Assocham added.