Nearly three years after Sterlite Industries exercised its call option for the Government’s residual 49 per cent stake in erstwhile PSU Balco, the matter remains nowhere close to resolution as the Government has refused to accept the call option in the shareholders’ agreement as valid and had even returned the cheque for Rs 1,098 crore sent by Sterlite to the Union Mines Ministry. With both the Government and Sterlite holding diagonally opposite views, the Cabinet is expected to take up a proposal tomorrow to appoint a mediator to settle the outstanding dispute. Apart from businesses it has already exited, the Government will also take forward its decision earlier this year to get out of the business of making tyres. After deciding against a proposed bailout for Tyre Corporation of India, a West-Bengal based PSU defunct for over 14 years, it had introduced a Bill in Parliament this April for divesting its ownership. The Standing Committee of Parliament on Industry had then examined the Bill and, after discussions with the corporation’s employees and the West Bengal government, had recommended that the existing service conditions of the employees should be extended for three years after recognising “the fact that the pay scales of the employees have not been revised since 1987 and need to be revised expeditiously so that the VRS could be calculated on the basis of the new scales.” The Bill, accordingly amended, will be taken up for Cabinet clearance tomorrow. With cotton production in the country touching record levels, the Cabinet will also consider a significant proposal to delineate the setting of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for different cotton varieties. It has been proposed that the MSP for two long staple cotton varieties ( 24.5 mm-25.5 mm and 29.5 mm-30.5 mm) shall be set by the Commission of Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). For other cotton varieties, the office of the Textile Commissioner will be empowered to set the MSP. To enforce its recent decision to revise the salary ceilings for the Payment of Bonus Act, the Cabinet will also consider the promulgation of an ordinance to bring the changes into effect. An official explained that the ordinance route was being taken as waiting for the Bill to be cleared by Parliament would mean that employees wouldn’t be able to enjoy the benefits in the current festive season. A proposal to set up two new Indian Institutes of Science and Education Research in Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram is also to be considered.
