The Hindu : Front Page : Road map for divestment plan unveiled

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Saturday, Nov 14, 2009
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Road map for divestment plan unveiled

Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday unveiled a road map for the ‘big bang’ disinvestment programme in major Central pubic sector undertakings (CPSUs), indicating that talks were already on with nearly 60 CPSUs, including SAIL, BSNL, Coal India, for selling government stake.

The government also announced that NTPC and Rural Electrification Corporation will make their follow-on public offer (FPO) within this fiscal along with Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, which is expected to come out with an initial public offer (IPO) to offload 10 per cent stake.

Briefing journalists here, Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitra said his department was in constant negotiation with various ministries, including the Ministry of Steel (for SAIL), the Coal Ministry (for Coal India) and the Communications and IT Ministry (for BSNL), for disinvestment. However, he refused to set a timeframe for the process.

Mr. Mitra informed that at least 60 CPSUs, which had been making profits in the last three years but were unlisted, and 10 CPSUs, which had less than 10 per cent holding and were listed, had been identified for offloading stake and talks were in progress to work out the entire process.

The Disinvestment Secretary stated that he had no brief from the government to go slow on disinvestment in CPSUs located in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu due to opposition by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and the DMK.

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