Bakht told The Financial Express on the sidelines of a Ficci seminar on "Restructuring PSUs" that the Government will extend the commission's term after reviewing its original functions and the extent to which it has accomplished them.

On whether the panel will be assigned the job of regulating the divestment process, the industry minister didn't deny such a possibility. He said that a decision will be taken in this regard at an appropriate moment. Bakht's statement is significant in the light of completion of the commission's term on August 22.

Earlier, addressing the seminar, Bakht said restructuring of PSUs had become the need of the hour to operate in the competitive environment, particularly in the post-liberalisation phase.

Restructuring does not necessarily mean infusion of capital alone. It may be improvement in technologyand skills, product diversificiation and expansion into new markets, he said. "If we are not getting returns from infused capital, from where will we get the money to spend further? said Bakht.

He said the Government wanted returns from the Rs 2,50,000-crore investment in PSUs. "The base of restructuring should be, if money is invested in PSUs then return should come. We leave aside the basic point of getting return from invested money," he said.

Experts should come out clearly with their views on how the return on money spent on PSUs can be recovered, he said.

The future viability of PSUs would depend on their becoming cost- effective, efficient, productive and market oriented, Bakht said.

"Enterprise-specific solutions are necessary which take into account the operative environment of the enterprise. In a competitive environment, one has to choose appropriate strategies of business for various products and services," he said.

The government was aware of the problems faced by PSUs, particularly inmanagement areas, and was taking appropriate measures for restructuring the PSUs on a case-to-case basis.

Nearly 50 proposals of restructuring had been initiated in the last one year and many of them had been approved, he said, adding many more were at different stages of consideration.

"It is noteworthy that many of the enterprises have already initiated restructuring measures at their own instance," said Bakht. There has to be judicious and cautious approach in exercising menu of options available for restructuring so that the efforts are not in vain and our limited resources are not strained without getting desired results, he said.