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Govt may introduce ESOP for PSU employees

India's Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Divestment Arun Jaitley said that the Union government was contemplating introducing employee stock option plan, or ESOP, in public sector undertakings that would go for divestment in future.

Delivering the valedictory address at the Global Investors Meeting, or GIM, in Bangalore, he said a major concern expressed over the fate of employees would be cleared with the introduction of ESOP. A package was being worked out by the central government.

Jaitley, who came out with a '10-point formula' in support of the proposal, said it was necessary to save the 'temples of modern India'.

A major reason for divestment was to recover the huge amount and utilise the same in social infrastructure to benefit the masses and to bring in professional management to run the units on profitable basis.

The move would also to curb the influence of officials over the corporations and to spread the shareholding. In the process of divestment, several sick units could to turned into profitable ventures besides delinking the government from the job of governance over the unit so that it could concentrate on building infrastructure.

Besides, the company under a new management would adopt new technology that would in turn create fresh job opportunities, he added.

Jaitley said different political parties had expressed different opinions on the divestment, but the national consensus had been building up on the economic reforms and it was evident from the joint venture efforts being made by the state and the central government.

Union Minister of State for Finance Dhananjay Kumar, in his address, said that a major initiative had been taken in the income tax area to rewrite the entire Act.

On the value-added tax, or VAT, he said that a meeting had been slated for June 21. Chief ministers and finance ministers of all the states would attend this. VAT will be implemented from April 1, 2001 all over the country for a uniform tax regime, he added.

During the day, the state government put on the mat several infrastructure projects worth over Rs 100 billion to the global investors inviting them for investment.

The projects were in the areas of food processing, minor airports, information technology parks, roads and tourism related projects.

UNI

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