No change in schedule for 13 PSUs’ selloff : Shourie

Our Economic Bureau

New Delhi, Nov 2: The time-table that the Cabinet committee on disinvestment (CCD) approved for the sale of 13 public sector undertakings (PSUs) is being adhered to and not a single slippage has taken place, said disinvestment minister Arun Shourie.

He was speaking at India Economic Summit 2001, which is being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the World Economic Forum.

“I had recommended to the CCD that the PSUs targeted for privatisation be shifted to the finance ministry. It was not accepted, but the CCD said that secretaries of respective administrative ministries be made responsible for adherence to the time-table prepared for privatisation of the 13 PSUs this fiscal,” Mr Shourie said, adding that the system is working smoothly and there has been not a single slippage.

Valuation of Air-India was so low that had SIA not pulled out, and made a bid along with the Tatas, the government may have been restrained to reject it. For the privatisation would have invited criticism that the national carrier was sold off so cheap, the disinvestment minister said.

He lamented that delays not only drive away propective buyers but also bring down valuation of PSUs. In this context, Mr Shourie quoted former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher who, commenting upon the charge that state-run companies were being sold cheaply, had said, “Lower values are the price we pay for socialism.”
Fantastically high valuations are floated not only by trade unionists and politicians but also corporates which do not want their rivals to take over PSUs, Mr Shourie said.