The BJP-led NDA Government was pursuing disinvestment of profit-making public sector units to “loot the exchequer,” CITU State vice-president Ch. Narsinga Rao said on Sunday.
He was addressing representatives of 12 public sector units, the first State-level meeting after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, here a day before launching a campaign to sensitise employees to the dangers associated with the disinvestment policy.
The campaign will continue till September 30.
Public Sector Protection Committee convener S. Jyoteeswara Rao presided.
CITU Visakhapatnam Steel Plant unit president J. Ayodhyaram, United Port and Dock Employees’ Union general secretary V.S. Padmanabha Raju, Heavy Plate and Vessels Plant union leader G.T.P. Prakash, and ONGC contact workers’ union leader P.V. Naidu were present.
Mr. Narsinga Rao said the closure of Zinc Smelter by the management of Hindustan Zinc Limited in the city after buying of the public sector by Anil Aggarwal-owned Vedanta Group should have been eye-opener to the government to withdraw its disinvestment policy.
He said the proposal made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to sell government shares in PSUs amounting to Rs.43,000 crore by the year-end was the “biggest loot” ever since introduction of disinvestment by the Congress regime in 1991.
Alleging that multi nationals were being handed over profit-making companies on a platter, he said the value of assets was being downplayed under depreciation clause and pointed out how the value of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited was shown less by the merchant bankers as a prelude to its disinvestment.
Mr. Rao said that RINL itself, since it commenced production in 1992, had paid Rs.23,000 crore as dividend and taxes.
He said the PSUs, with a permanent workforce of 14.04 lakh, had contributed Rs.1.15 lakh crore to the exchequer during 2012-13. Their share to the GDP was 17 to 24 per cent during 2008-12, he said, and opined that the disinvestment policy was aimed at weakening the PSUs at the behest of the private sector lobby.
