Relook at disinvestment needed 8211; GVR

He pointed out that in the liberalised atmosphere where we had liberalised import, reduced tariff and free entry of foreign companies, quot;only real PSUs can withstand competitionquot;. Rest need to be reorganised, he said.Ramakrishna said that PSUs like NTPC, BHEL and IOC, started ab initio as public sector companies needed specific attention. But the same yardstick could not be applied to private sick companies taken over as PSUs,

nationalised companies and PSUs started ab inito on uneconomic grounds under political compulsion. Supporting their disinvestment, Ramakrishna said that developed as well as developing countries both, had privatised their PSUs. He, however, pointed out that in the past quot;we have failed to put in practice the idea of liberalising the economy and liberating the PSUs.quot;

Liberalisation has affected the working of PSUs in the country, he said. quot;Under liberalisation, there are policies which militate against the Indian PSUs. Bringing IPPs in the power sector is the most disastrous policy under liberalisation,quot; he added.

Ramakrishna stressed the need to treat chief executives of real PSUs well. quot;Public sector is losing good people to the private sector. To stop this, salary of the chief executives of PSUs should not be linked with the salary paid to the government employeesthey are working in a commercial environment.quot; He said that treatment to top PSU officials should be performance-oriented. Dwelling on opposition from various sectors to the disinvestment process, Ramakrishna said that people were not convinced of a better utilisation of the money accumulated from disinvestment.

quot;Disinvestment should not be made a budget-driven process. Shares of good companies should not be disinvested to add to the revenue account,quot; he said.Disinvestment should only be done in those PSUs which need not remain in the public sector and the proceeds from such disinvestment should be put in the disinvestment fund, said Ramakrishna.

He added that the proceeds from disinvestment should be used for providing funds to real PSUs for diversification, giving VRS to surplus employees and creating resources for enhancing rural infrastructure.

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