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DoD favours transferring PSUs listed for sale to MoF

Piqued by delays and obstacles in the sell-off process, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie said on Wednesday that his ministry would soon seek transfer of all the PSUs slated for privatisation to the finance ministry for speeding up the process.

"We are considering a series of measures to streamline the divestment process including a proposal to park PSUs slated for privatisation with the finance ministry", Shourie told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on divestment policy in New Delhi.

Announcing that financial bids for CMC and Hindustan Teleprinters would be invited by the month end, he said that he would also approach the Cabinet Committee on Divestment for reviving earlier proposal for privatisation of IPCL as a whole instead of segregating Baroda unit for sale to Indian Oil on nomination basis.

Sale of Baroda unit has been stalled due to dispute over the pricing issue between IOC and IPCL, which remains to be solved despite the matter being referred to the cabinet secretariat, sources said.

Besides IOC, Reliance was the other shortlisted bidder for IPCL before CCD decided to separate Baroda unit for sale to IOC.

"We intend to invite financial bids for HTL and CMC by September 27-28", he said.

The government would be in a position to invite financial bids for the hotel major by third week of October, he said while asserting that divestment process for Videsh Sanchar Nigam, IBP and Hindutan Zinc was in advanced stage.

Shourie said that the Cabinet Committee on Divestment would be convened by month end, possibly on September 27-28, for sorting out pending issues relating to a host of PSUs where divestment process is in progress.

"Delays in divestment are costing the country heavily," Shourie said addressing the seminar organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and warned that this could severely impact the national economy.

The Planning Commission has proposed a target of mopping Rs 160 billion annually for the Tenth FiveYear Plan (2002-07) for attaining 8 per cent economic growth against the current year's target of Rs 120 billion.

Shourie said that government would be in a position to complete privatisation of eleven PSUs if minor issues could be resolved.

He said that once the PSUs were parked with the finance ministry, day-to-day decisions would also be taken by it.

Asked about IBP, he said the petroleum minister and finance minister would meet on September 20 to sort out the issue regarding the insistence of Rs 5 billion bank guarantee from the bidders.

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