Surplus cash of PSUs may be used to revive sick units

NEW DELHI: Surplus cash of state-owned enterprises including those of Maharatnas and Navratnas lying idle in banks may be used to nurse ailing PSUs that can be revived back to health, the government said today.

The government has constituted a committee headed by NTPC Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury to study the proposal and submit a report in two months time.

The committee will examine the possibility of formation of a joint venture company funded by seed equity from Maharatna and other cash-rich central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to administer and manage sick state-run enterprises that can be revived.

"All the Maharatnas and Navratnas combined have a (cash) surplus of around Rs 2 lakh crore which is lying idle in banks. We have given them a proposal to form a joint venture company which has equal equity share of all these cash rich companies.

There are 70 sick PSUs and 43 out of these can be revived, the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Anant Geete said on the sidelines of the SIAM conference here.

"The new company formed will review and decide which sick PSUs can be revived. We want to give it entire responsibility to take over (revival of sick PSUs). There will be complete transparency in the process and the surplus money lying idle will certainly be used to revive sick PSUs," Geete added.

Besides examining the feasibility of setting up of a separate company to nurse ailing PSUs back to health, the terms of reference of the Committee include identifying sources from which funds may be raised for the proposed entity as equity capital; and to recommend organisational structure of the proposed entity and its interface with the Ministries.

Geete also said the government proposes to launch the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) for electric vehicles from Delhi, and a decision in this regard will be taken in a month's time.

"Commuters will benefit as our aim is to run public transport on battery-operated electric vehicles. It will help maintain environmental balance. Delhi is considered the most polluted city in the entire country. We want to remove Delhi from that list, this is why we are starting the Plan from Delhi," the Minister said.

The Mission Plan projects a potential for sales of 6-7 million Electric Vehicles (EVs), along with resultant fuel savings of 2.2-2.5 million tonnes that can be achieved by 2020.