PSUs as milch cows

Much criticism was heaped on state-owned life insurer Life Insurance Company for its participation in the auction of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC’s) shares to shore up subscription to the oil and gas company’s public offer earlier this year. But a senior finance ministry official thinks the criticism was unwarranted. He said the proposition that government companies should not buy stakes in public sector companies in the disinvestment programme was similar to saying, “You can have cows but you cannot milk them.”