SCOPE suggests closure of 70 PSUs

BANGALORE: The Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), an apex professional organisation representing public enterprises, suggested to the Central government to close some 70 PSUs that are not viable in the long-run and cannot be revived.
SCOPE Chairman D K Varma told a news conference that some 70 PSUs which are doing well should be given autonomy and political interference in their functioning must stop, so that they performed better.
Varma said there are some 100 other PSUs that are not making profits but have the potential for a turnaround and coming out of the red, and in them, government should take up financial restructuring and give stress to technology upgradation and induct a Board of Professionals to run them.
On PSUs which are performing well, he suggested that the government first seek dispersal of shareholding to larger number of people (IPO route) and then resort to strategic sale.
According to him, the model of categorising PSUs into Navaratnas and mini-Navaratnas is working well, and more companies should be brought under them which is definitely going to encourage them to perform better.
SCOPE asked the government to take up labour reforms quickly, saying multiple laws are a "great deal of handicap", and suggested "nationalisation" of labour laws. PSUs should be given flexibility to hire-and-fire in tune with their business requirements, Varma suggested.