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Journalism of Courage
For all the noise it’s made against the fuel price hike, the Left admitted that the ‘‘impression’’ it got from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was that the hike was on. Now add to this Singh’s decision to reform the coal sector, his forceful statement on power reforms, the 10% disinvestment in BHEL and the restructuring of the National Highway Authority of India. Over the last fortnight, the Prime Minister has been quietly putting his foot down and pushing forward key reform initiatives.
While a final decision on oil prices is awaited, the Coal Ministry has moved a Cabinet note that will allot 15 captive coal blocks through competitive bidding.
This ministry, which is directly under the Prime Minister, has been under severe pressure from state governments, steel companies and even the Power Ministry to augment supplies. While import of coal is an option, the captive coal mining policy has really not taken off on account of the quality of mines as well as on pricing issues.
However, reforms in the coal sector are expected to go beyond captive coal. Top coal ministry officials told The Indian Express that they will soon start discussions with the Left parties on the amendment to the Coal Nationalisation Act, which was put on the backburner on account of pressure from trade unions.
The Bill to amend the Coal Nationalisation Act, pending in the Rajya Sabha, would throw open the sector to other mining companies.
Apart from coal, the other sector where reforms gained momentum is power. On May 17, the Power Ministry and the trade unions met after a consensus was reached on the review of the Electricity Act. The government stuck to the unbundling of state electricity boards, though the deadline for the same was extended till the yearend.
Within a few days, the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra also announced the unbundling of their SEB, splitting it into three companies—one each for distribution, tranmission and generation along with a holding company.
The tone for this was set earlier when the PM, inaugurating the Nathpa Jhakri project in Himachal Pradesh last week, did voice his stand on power reforms very clearly: unbundling, though not a goal, was still on while populism of the free power variety was out.
Take disinvestment. The decision to disinvest 10 per cent equity (from 67.72 to 57.72 per cent) in BHEL last week would enable the government to garner Rs 2,000 crore. The UPA government says that this money will be reploughed back into a National Investment Fund and sets the pace for future divestments in other PSUs.
Even in the road sector, the government has initiated a process of restructuring the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) which has projects spread across all the states. Among other things, sources said, the move is to bring in more professionals on to the board of the organisation which would enable NHAI to take on more highway development projects in the future. It is learnt that consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has already made a presentation to the NHAI on the restructuring process.
