Naik, Joshi against PSU sell-offs

At the same time, the department of disinvestment (DoD) and the ministry of petroleum and natural gas are heading for a stand-off, with union petroleum minister Ram Naik refusing to budge from his earlier stand that the entire oil sector is of "strategic importance."

Whereas the DoD is understood to have agreed on conferring strategic status for two flagship oil firms including Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Naik is firm on his stand of including the entire oil sector in the list of strategic sectors.

When asked whether the ministry has prepared a road map for disinvestment in oil PSUs, Naik said that this exercise will be carried out once the CCD takes a final decision over the inclusion of oil and petroleum in the list of strategic sectors such as defence, railways and atomic energy.

Similarly, speaking to The Financial Express, Joshi said, "We have not sent anything to the CCD regarding disinvestment in Maruti."

This rules out any firm decision on MUL sell-off at the forthcoming CCD, since any proposal of divestment in the company has to come from the ministry of heavy industries. The DoD can initiate moves for privatisation in PSUs, but MUL is not a PSU but an Indo-Japanese joint venture.

MUL is on the agenda of the June 23 meet, but the CCD will only discuss the pros and cons of Maruti disinvestment.

Apart from IOC, ONGC and MUL, other important companies likely to figure at the CCD meet include MTNL, VSNL, RINL, Balco, Shipping Corporation of India, MMTC and STC. At the meeting, several other decisions regarding the fate of smaller companies like Engineers India Ltd (EIL), too, are likely to be taken.

There was an earlier decision regarding divestment of 26 per cent to a strategic partner for EIL. As in other cases, here too the administrative ministry is trying to complicate the matters by arguing that 26 per equity be offered to IOC. The CCD is expected to sort out such issues.