Govt Moots Revival Schemes For Sick Fertiliser Psus

The government proposes to formulate rehabilitation schemes for the sick public sector undertakings (PSUs) under the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers.

Disclosing this, Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers M Arunachalam said, We are taking this up on a priority basis and are holding a series of review meetings to evolve suitable rehabilitation packages to revive these ailing PSUs.

We have to find out some way out to revive these units before they die out, he told PTI in his first interview after taking over as minister for chemicals and fertilisers late last week.

The meeting, which began yesterday, will discuss the cases of all ailing public sector fertiliser units including those referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) for preparing revival schemes, he said.

 

When asked whether the government would wait for the BIFRs orders before evolving a revival package, Arunachalam said, We will not wait for the BIFR directives. We will come out with viable schemes for these sick units and present them before the BIFR.

Out of nine public sector fertiliser companies, three have been referred to the BIFR. These are Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI), Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation (HFC) and Projects and Development India Limited (PDIL).

On the revival of the Vadodara-based Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL), Arunachalam said the Cabinet secretariat has sent the rehabilitation proposal to the department of chemicals for approval.

IDPL, a sick company under the BIFR, had been referred to the group of ministers for suggesting a revival strategy.

To reformulate the revival package for the Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI), the government had constituted an expert group led by the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Ltd (ICICI). The groups report is still awaited.

The government had approved in principle a revival package for the FCI in 1995 which envisaged the revamp of its Sindri, Ramagundan and Talcher units at a fresh investment of Rs 1,736 crore, apart from financial restructuring and other details.

PDIL was declared a sick company in 1985 and the ICICI was appointed the operating agency to formulate revival schemes.

Based on ICICIs report and other inputs, the department of fertilisers has formulated a rehabilitation package which is in the advanced stage of clearance from the government.

A revival package for the HFC was also formulated which envisaged limited revamp of the Durgapur, Barauni and Namrup units but the funding arrangement for this package is yet to be tied up. Currently, the package is being reformulated by an expert group.