CCD looks at ways to bypass Parliament in PSU sell-off

NEW DELHI: Friday’s meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment promises to be packed with fireworks.
The disinvestment ministry has proposed an ordinance to move ahead with the divestment of oil PSUs. It has also suggested five other options to take disinvestment forward. This is crucial, given the recent SC order making Parliamentary approval a pre-condition for privatisation of the two oil companies.
In the option paper, the ministry has suggested enacting an “appropriate legislation� for the specific purpose of moving ahead with disinvestment of HPCL and BPCL. Alternative proposals include enacting appropriate legislation that empowers the government to privatise all PSUs that were set up through nationalisation/acquisition act, partially or wholly. The ministry has suggested that should either of the two options find favour with the CCD, the Centre could issue an ordinance.
The disinvestment ministry has also suggested that general privatisation legislation be enacted that empowers the government to disinvest any PSU as long as the procedure adopted adhere to the rules framed under this legislation.
The proposal for an ordinance is bound to meet with stiff opposition from sections within the government, particularly from petroleum minister Ram Naik. A view within a section of the government is that ordinance should be used only in situations where the government does not have the luxury of waiting for Parliament to meet. Some are likely to interpret an ordinance as a means to circumvent Parliament. The ministry has placed six options before the ministers’ panel in a last-ditch effort to revive the privatisation of oil PSUs.
A review by the same bench is also one of the option, but it appears that the ministry is not hopeful that much will come out of the review in its favour.
The ministry has also suggested that the government could seek to re-open the case by seeking a presidential reference under Article 143 of the Constitution. It is said that government could seek clarity on the question of need for privatisation legislation for divestment of government holding in PSUs.
Another option that could be explored, and quite likely the one that may ultimately be favoured at the Friday’s meeting is that the government await a fresh case by a third party that may come up as the result of the Supreme Court’s judgement of September 16 and then re-open the issue before a larger bench and seek a reversal of the ruling.