Decided on strategic disinvestment in loss-making PSUs: Goyal

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the Centre's plan on strategic disinvestment in loss-making public sector units will not apply to national carrier Air India.

Supporting "no disinvestment" of Air India, he said: "Every major country runs a national carrier. The Swiss government revived their national carrier. What we need to do is to improve efficiency of Air India. Last year, it has made operating profit."

"Going forward, we are looking at financial engineering and effective deployment of Air India routes," Goyal said at the India Today Conclave here.

He named Hindustan Photo Films and a Pune-based pharmaceutical company and many others which would be put through disinvestment.

Goyal said the government has talked to employee unions and other stakeholders for an "amicable settlement".

Speaking on the success of Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) meant for reforms in power distribution companies in the country, he said Tamil Nadu got the benefit of the scheme after one year of joining and its distribution company was able to reduce losses by 60 per cent.

Goyal said people of India supported demonetisation because they understood the objective.

"The original objective of demonetisation has been achieved. We did not have a linear objective; rather, we have a holistic plan."

--IANS

bdc/tsb/bg