Strategic sales policy to include profitable PSEs

NEW DELHI: The government will soon unveil a policy on strategic sales that will also include profitable state-run enterprises, disinvestment secretary Neeraj Kumar Gupta said on Tuesday.

So far, the government, which had budgeted Rs 28,500 crore from strategic sale in the current fiscal, has not been able to make any headway.

"Maybe later in the year the government will come out with a policy prescription for strategic sale,” said Gupta.

He said broadly strategic sale will mean the government selling equity of the company along with the controlling management. “How much stake will be sold? It will vary from place to place and company to company,” he said.

While presenting his budget for 2015-16, finance minister Arun Jaitley had said the government’s stake sale programme will include some strategic disinvestment.

Gupta said that in the last budget speech it was very clear that the government will go in for strategic sale and not confine it to loss-making central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). “Whatever is the policy statement we will go by it. That will unfold, I am sure, very soon and we will wait for that,” Gupta said.

He said he will go by what the finance minister and prime minister have said on where government should be in the business. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said last year that it’s not the government's business to run a business. “Our job is that of a facilitator to create new opportunities,” he had said.

Gupta said as a policy the government will continue with minority stake sale as well as strategic sale. “So, without sticking to any time line, as per the commitment of the government, we are divesting in the CPSEs,” he said.

The erstwhile National Democratic Alliance government, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had sold four loss-making entities, including two hotels. It had sold Modern Food Industries to Hindustan Unilever while Paradeep Phosphates was bagged by Zuari Industries. Other firms which were privatised included Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL), Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco), CMC and Hindustan Zinc (HZL).

Last month, Supreme Court ordered a stay on the proposed 29.54% stake sale in HZL and observed that if the company is making profits, then the government can also make some profit from the remaining stake and asked why it should disinvest, in that case.