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Ends in a whimper

Ashok Dasgupta

WHAT had been hyped in recent days as the `big bang' session for approving disinvestment in `big ticket' public sector undertakings (PSUs), the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD), on Friday last, virtually ended in a whimper.

Instead of laying the three-year road-map for disinvestment and taking decisions -- as had been expected -- on strategic equity sales of major PSUs such as MTNL, VSNL, BHEL, Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) and the oil companies, the CCD steered clear of the `thor ny path' and barely managed to chart out the hitherto uncertain disinvestment course for the current fiscal. First things first, and so the main aim of the CCD meeting was to, somehow, pave the way for achieving the Rs. 10,000-crore disinvestment target fixed for the year.

Accordingly, the CCD gave the go-ahead to completion of the disinvestment process in 10 PSUs, in respect of which the Cabinet had earlier accorded `in-principle' approval. Most of these are PSUs, which had been looked into by the erstwhile Disinvestment Commission and awaiting implementation of the recommendations such as Balco, IPCL, Scooters India, Hindustan Copper, NEPA, Hindustan Teleprinters, Bharat Leather Corporation and the like.

The fact remains that except for a few like Balco, IPCL and Hindustan Copper, the remaining may not find ready buyers. In fact, for some of them, advertisements have already been inserted for sale but the response has been lukewarm.

These 10 PSUs apart, the CCD added another 11 to the list of units cleared `in principle' for divestment such as STC, MMTC, Shipping Corporation, Hindustan Zinc, Hindustan Organic, Hindustan Insecticides, two subsidiaries of ITDC, Hotel Ranchi Ashok and Hotel Utkal Ashok, and IBP -- the only exception in the oil sector.

Most of these 11 PSUs also have been, earlier, scrutinised by the Disinvestment Commission, but the recommendations merely gathered dust all these years. The threads will now be picked up and Cabinet notes prepared for CCD's approval during its next meet ing on July 12. But the way things stand, it is highly implausible that the sell-off of these units will go through in the current fiscal.

Incidentally, this block of 21 PSUs identified, are not steeped in any controversy whatsoever - they are not anybody's healthy baby or milch cow - but neither are there any ready takers for a majority of them. The PSUs, which can fill the Centre's coffer s are the healthy and profitable units in sectors such as telecom (MTNL, VSNL), oil (IOC, BPCL, HPCL), automobile (MUL) and power equipment (BHEL). These, however, are meshed in various controversies and debates and will take a longer while to sort thems elves out.

The oil companies cannot be disinvested now as a better price can be obtained after restructuring. That's fair enough. Maruti is involved in a nationwide controversy, with perhaps equal numbers in favour and against disinvestment. Moreover, the Departmen t of Heavy Industry is opposed to outright sale for, perhaps, purely `nationalistic' reasons and the fact that it's one of the very few shining stars in a galaxy of sick units under its charge.

In the telecom sector, it is a known fact that the Department of Telecom Services (DTS), which has now been bifurcated into an operations wing, is opposed to corporatisation as the next step, it is being feared, would be privatisation. And to show that t he employees mean business, all wire links in the country were snapped on last Friday when they went on mass casual leave in protest.

As of now, thanks to the Communications Minister, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, privatisation of DoT, even in the future, has been nipped in the bud. After all, which private entrepreneur will take the burden of his 3.2-lakh free phones largesse!