PMO asks Kant to chalk out detailed plan for one sick PSU

NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant has been asked by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to identify one sick PSU, along with a detailed plan for its sell-off or eventual liquidation, before moving on to other such cases.

This follows a road map prepared by NITI Aayog and submitted to the PMO last month on strategic sale or closure of some sick public sector units.

NITI Aayog, which functions as a think-tank for the government and provides policy-related inputs, had submitted two separate lists of sick and loss-making PSUs — one comprising those that can be closed down and the other of those that should be privatised.

Kant, who had made the presentation on this road map before the PMO, has been now asked to identify one sick PSU that can be sold off or liquidated in the event of the sell-off exercise not fructifying, before moving on to other such cases, a senior government official said.

Kant, who earlier headed the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), has also been asked to chalk out a detailed plan for the sale or the eventual liquidation, which can be then taken to the Cabinet, the official added.

The exercise will also help the government in preparing a comprehensive blueprint to sell loss-making PSUs or close down the entities that cannot be revived, he said, while adding that previous such attempts have not been very successful.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his Budget 2016-17 speech said the Aayog will identify PSUs for strategic sale and disinvestment.

"A new policy for management of government investment in public sector enterprises, including disinvestment and strategic sale, has been approved. We have to leverage the assets of CPSEs for generation of resources for investment in new projects," Jaitley had said.

"We will encourage CPSEs to divest individual assets like land, manufacturing units etc to release their asset value for making investment in new projects. The NITI Aayog will identify the CPSEs for strategic sale."

The government aims to collect Rs 56,500 crore through disinvestment in PSUs this fiscal, as per the Union budget for 2016-17.

Of the total budgeted proceeds, Rs 36,000 crore is estimated to come from minority stake sale in PSUs and the remaining Rs 20,500 crore from strategic sale in both profit and loss-making companies.

In 2015-16, the government was able to meet less than half of the disinvestment estimates at Rs 25,312 crore against the target of Rs 69,500 crore.

It had raised around Rs 24,500 crore in 2014-15 by selling stake in public companies, about Rs 16,000 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 23,960 crore in 2012-13.

It had raised around Rs 14,000 crore in 2011-12 and over Rs 22,100 crore in 2010-11.