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No separate fund from divestment proceeds: Joshi

The government on Monday ruled out creation of any separate corpus fund from the money mobilised from divestment for restructuring public sector units, saying the Centre spends more from the consolidated fund for the purpose.

Replying to supplementaries during question hour in Rajya Sabha, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Manohar Joshi told Congress member Pranab Mukherjee that creation of such a fund "was not feasible".

The divestment proceeds go to the general fund and are also used for restructuring of PSU, Joshi said adding the government spends more for restructuring of the sick units including providing VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) packages for some employees.

In reply to another question, the minister said the government would undertake phased infusion of funds to the tune of Rs 3.94 billion for reviving the public sector HMT units.

In reply to the main question, Joshi said there are five central public sector undertakings under the heavy engineering group that have continuously suffered losses amounting to Rs 13.70 billion during the last five years.

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