Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil have stressed that the government will unveil a new roadmap for disinvestment, maybe as early as the Budget next month. But at least 15 public sector units? plans to raise capital from Dalal Street have been languishing in cold storage.

These 15 PSUs include firms like Cochin Shipyard, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Telecommunication Consultants India Limited (TCIL), Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC). All these firms urgently need capital for their expansion plans and were seeking to get most administrative clearances in place before the new government took charge.

Taking a PSU to the markets needs clearances at several levels, which take at least six months. So the plan was to approach the markets as soon as possible, if the new regime?s policies permitted stake sales. Though the government is now keen to push disinvestment and markets have recovered significantly from their 2008 lows, IPO plans of firms like ECIL, Cochin Shipyard and TCIL seem to have evaporated, thanks to their administrative ministries and board of directors developing ?cold feet.?

The disinvestment department is miffed. ?We had a shortlist of 14-15 PSUs that wanted to go public and raise money. But most have fallen by the wayside as administrative ministries that were earlier supportive of these plans developed a severe case of cold feet in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls,? a senior official said.

Former disinvestment secretary Rahul Khullar is learnt to have written at least two reminders to secretaries in these PSUs? administrative ministries in the last three months, asking them to keep IPO clearances ready. The ministries of telecom and shipping, which control TCIL and Cochin Shipyard, respectively, didn?t even bother to reply.

?These departments have been sleeping since March. The PM?s tough talk on disinvestment, since regaining power, has jolted them out of their reverie now. But ideally, these PSUs should have been ready to launch their IPOs by now as they are intrinsically good firms. Moreover, the Sensex is now above 15,000, way higher than the 8,000-odd level in October 2008 when NHPC Oil India Limited deferred their IPOs,? the official pointed out.

Not all ministries are to blame for the delay, though. For instance, the commerce ministry had forwarded the disinvestment department?s advice to ECGC, the PSU under its wings. But ECGC?s board is yet to move on its part, without which the ministry can do precious little.