Talks on for selloff in 60 CPSUs: disinvestment secy

The disinvestment department today said it is in talks with administrative ministries of 60 Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs), including SAIL, BSNL, Coal India, for selling government stake.

In his first interactions with the media, Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitra said, "We are in interactions with the Ministry of Steel for SAIL, we are in interactions with the Coal Ministry on Coal India. On BSNL also, we are in interaction with the IT and Communication Ministry."

However, Mitra refused to set a time-frame for the process. A lot of factors have to be taken into consideration before the process is set in motion, he said.

The government recently stated that profitable unlisted PSUs should hit capital markets and all profitable listed PSUs should increase their public holding to at least 10 per cent.

Mitra informed that there are 10 listed PSUs where the public holding is less than 10 per cent and around 50 state-run firms which are profitable but unlisted.

"We are in interaction on a large number of these 60 companies with their administrative ministries. We are in interaction with them but it does not mean that we are close to divesting them... All this is a function of a number of factors," he said.

To a query whether the opposition by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and DMK would mean that PSUs located in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu would not be on the priority list of disinvestment, Mitra said there was no such guidance from the government.