Speaking to a group of journalists here on Sunday, he said that there would be "no difficulty" in selling government equity in Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL).

His statement is very important because in the past he had expressed his reservation on the issue of divestment in MUL.

However, disinvestment minister Arun Shourie managed to convince him about the need for MUL divestment. As a result, Mr Joshi agreed to the setting up of a committee of secretaries to recommend optimal ways for the same. This was approved at the Saturday meeting of the cabinet committee on disinvestment (CCD).

Mr Joshi emphasised that he "did not oppose MUL divestment at the Saturday CCD meeting". He also said that he would be `happy' if the government decides to buy the equity of Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), the equal partner of government in MUL.

The committee of secretaries, which will be guided Cabinet secretary TR Prasad, will negotiate with SMC for MUL divestment. The committee is expected to complete its work within 15 days.

There is a possibility of the committee taking more than 15 days, Mr Joshi said. One reason is that heavy industries secretary TR Vijayaraghavan, a member of the committee, retires on November 30. "In any case, the committee would be able to submit its recommendations at the next CCD meet on December 23," Mr Joshi added. He said that his ministry is concerned about labour unrest at MUL.

The auto policy, on which Mr Joshi's ministry is working, will be taken to the Cabinet at the end of January. "We would impose tariff and non-tariff barriers to check the import of second-hand cars."

The white paper on the 48 public sector undertakings directly under the ministry of heavy industries is almost ready and will be presented at the Cabinet within a month, Mr Joshi said, adding that it need not go through Parliament.

The ministry of heavy industries has referred 13 of its PSUs to the department of disinvestment (DoD), and five more are likely to be referred to the DoD, he said.

Defending the public sector, Mr Joshi said there are problems with many PSUs, but similar is the case with the private sector where any number of companies are sick.