Govt against monopolies after PSU sell-off

Jaitley said the disinvestment process would be based on various factors related to each PSU and its nature of operation, manpower and viability towards revival. “There is no common roadmap for the process of privatisation and disinvestment. It could be done by gradually diluting the government holding to strategic partners, to employees and also to the public at large so that there is no creation of monopoly in any segment of the industry,” he said.

However, the minister emphasised the need to evolve a social security net like a generous VRS and a ESOP scheme for the surplus workers in the PSUs that are identified for disinvestment. “Offloading of Government’s minority stake — as it has been done in the previous governments — would not be attractive either for the strategic partners leave or for the government while the PSU culture will continue,” he said.

The Minister expressed his confidence that the government would be able fulfill the target of collecting Rs 10,000 crore funds from the disinvestment programme in the current fiscal year.

These funds would be used for setting up more schools and hospitals instead of wasting taxpayers money in either making bread or running a hotel, Jaitley said. “Though there are divergent views within the government and outside over privatisation… ultimately good economics will prevail over bad politics,” he said. “In fact, after the privatistaion — which would bring in fresh capital and technology to these units — it would become good politics too in the long run,” Jaitley added.

Taking on the critics of privatisation, Jaitley said it was Congress which first initiated the privatisation drive and the United Front government, helped by Left Front parties, continued the same process. “Many state governments including Karnataka, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh have already started talking about privatising the state units… and even the Left Front government is looking for a buyer for the Calcutta-based Great Easter hotels,” he said. “This shows that there is a country-wide consensus on privatisation and any divergent views expressed by various parties only helps the entire process,” he said.

When asked about Sharad Yadav’s opposition to privatisation and Petroleum minister Ram Naik’s statement that oil PSUs will not be privatised, Jaitley said ultimately the decision taken by the Cabinet will prevail and their objections will also be taken into account while deciding on PSU sell-off.