Asset management authority planned for selloff

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Public Sector Disinvestment Commission has recommended to the state government the setting up of the Punjab State Asset Management Authority. In its recommendations, the commission has proposed a draft Punjab Asset Management Authority Act under which the authority would have the power to contract, acquire, hold and dispose of property, both movable and immovable, and may sue and be sued by its corporate name.
The commssion has also proposed that proceeds from the disinvestment process may be placed in a “Disinvestment Fund� managed by Punjab State Asset Management Authority to be used for financing, restructuring, retrenchment, VRS and re-training for redeployment.
The commission, headed by former chief secretary P H Vaishnav, has made its draft report public and has sought representations, comments and suggestions from the organisations till June 26. Having put report on website of Punjab government, Mr Vaishnav said the panel would finalise its report by September 30, 2002 and present it to the state government for appropriate action.
While the commission has recommended winding up of major corporations and boards in Punjab it has recommended that certain PSUs be restructured by rightsizing through a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) or retrenchment of excess staff.
The commission feels that it is imperative to set up the asset management authority to implement decisions of the government taken on the recommendations of the commission in the interest of transparency and expedition. The commission also feels that “even if the task of implementing the decisions regarding closure, winding up, merger and amalgamations of PSUs is allowed to be carried out by various administrative departments of Punjab government they would not be able to effectively implement the recommendations because of certain complications which have been observed by the disinvestment commission in case of most of PSUs.�
The complications include: non-preparation of balance sheets for the last couple of years; pending legal cases before the High Court, lower courts and arbitrators; non-filing of annual returns with the Registrar of Companies, in the case of entities incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and non-cooperation by PSUs in furnishing information required for moving ahead.