Disinvestment of NPCIL

It is unfortunate to note the central government is resorting to various anti-people measures, conveniently termed as reform.”  One such measure is the disinvestment of public sector undertakings. On September 8, 2013 the government initiated the process to sell stakes in two blue-chip PSUs - NALCO and NMDC. It was expected it mop up around Rs 9,000 crore based on present stock prices. Later it had sought merchant bankers for Neyveli Lignite, where it plans to sell 5% stake, again through the auction route. The total amount expected to be moped up is around Rs. 10,000 crore. The stated purpose of the proposed disinvestment is to bridge the deficit that the Centre. In the cases Neyveli Lignite and NALCO - the share is also said to be necessitated to comply with the new SEBI norms that mandate at least 10% non-promoter holding in listed companies. The government has proposed to sell 10 per cent of its stake in Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) through an initial public offering ( IPO) that will list the company on the stock exchanges. Reports show that a section of the politicians and bureaucrats have developed the mind set against the public sector. They are lobbying to privatise the public sector units, including the profit making units. One of the routes suggested by them is disinvestment.  The assets owned by the public sector units are the property of the people of India. Th government is only the custodian of the property. Therefore, the government should be careful in diluting the assets of the general public. Already vast resources of the people of the country have been looted by the crony capitalists with the support of corrupt politicians and connivance of corrupt officials.  The country has lost nearly Rs.15 lakh core in illegal mining and fraudulent allocation of mining rights, allocation of coal blocks, gas/petroleum blocks, and spectrum, besides allotment of land, quarrying rights,  liberty to collect tolls, etc. As a result, a few industrialists, businessmen, real estate tycoons and others have benefit ted vast amount running to lakhs of crores of rupees.  If the natural resources of the country are fairly and judiciously allocated, the country can raise thousands of crores of rupees every year, which will be more than sufficient to wipe out fiscal deficit of the country, besides facilitating investment in development programmes and welfare schemes. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of crores of public money is lying with banks and post offices as unclaimed deposits as well as interest, and remaining with the insurance companies as unclaimed policies for a long period. Such unclaimed amounts can be mobilised by the government for bridging the fiscal deficit and raising resources for development programmes and welfare schemes. Similarly, thousands of crores of rupees is lying unspent in several schemes and programmes, which can be re-channelised to bridge the fiscal deficit. Moreover, if the  huge amount of black money and property  lying on foreign banks comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be liquidated. And after paying the entire foreign debt, India will have huge resources to invest in development programmes and welfare measures. Under the circumstances, disinvestment of public sector units is warranted and unadvisable.

Dr.C.Murukadas, The Times of India, Dec. , 1, 2012