No headway in BHEL disinvestment: Vilasrao

The government today said no headway has been made regarding the disinvestment of state-run power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL).

"BHEL disinvestment is nothing as yet because the department (of disinvestment) has not communicated to us. It is up to the Board of BHEL," Union Minister for Heavy Industries Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters on the sidelines of the Fourth Environmentally Friendly Vehicles Conference here.

He said any decision regarding disinvestment of BHEL has to be taken by the board of the company. "We can't direct, the board has to take a decision. But so far, nothing is in writing," Deshmukh said.

Asked about imposition of safeguard duties on China-made power equipment, he said, "We have already written to concerned ministries. We are waiting for their response. We want something to be imposed." He said the decision has to be taken by respective departments of the government.

"It is creating a lot of problems for BHEL. They cannot use our land as a dumping ground. That will create lot of problems for local manufacturing and we have to take into account their concerns. We have to protect their business," Deshmukh said. However, of late the minister said many companies that were sourcing equipment from China are shifting back to Indian companies because of quality concerns.

"People are coming back from China because of their sub-standard (product). They are again coming back to BHEL," he said. He added that Jindal Power has already started giving orders to BHEL for power equipment parts.

"Jindal Power had already booked their orders with China but they again came back to us and signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with us recently," he said.