Invest surplus cash or pay special dividend: Govt to PSUs

"Central public sector enterprises have large investible surpluses. In fact, there are more than Rs 2.50 lakh crore investible surpluses with them. The government would like them to grow and invest in their development plan...

"If the PSUs do not deploy the investible surpluses in their own growth and expansion, that money should not lie idle and it must be paid back to the government by way of special dividend," Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel said.

He was briefing reporters about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with heads of 25 PSUs, including the cash-rich ONGC, Coal India, BHEL, NTPC, SAIL, NMDC.

Patel said a committee of secretaries will be set up to look into the issues of PSUs, like autonomy and regulatory clearances, besides investment of surplus funds. It will be headed by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth.

The meeting comes in the wake of the government finding it hard to meet the fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of the GDP for the current fiscal.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was present in the meeting, "was very categorical and I fully endorsed that -- either you (PSUs) use that money for your growth and development in a time-bound manner or give back to the government by way of special dividend," Patel said. MORE