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Opposition raps govt for 'mindless' divestment

Lashing out at the government for "indiscriminately" privatising profit-making PSUs, the Opposition in Lok Sabha demanded a thorough review of the divestment policy saying it helped only monopolistic corporate giants.

Participating in a special discussion on divestment of PSUs, Opposition members also accused the government of resorting to mindless divestment to deal with fiscal deficit and shortfall in tax collection.

Initiating the discussion, Prabodh Panda of CPI questioned the purpose of divestment, classification of PSUs for this exercise and methodology adopted for offloading government's stake in various units.

He said though divestment proceeds are meant to be utilised in social sector, this year's allocation for this purpose is quite negligible.

Stating that divestment is benefiting only big corporate and not the nation, Panda said it is clear from the manner in which Rs 12 billion was withdrawn soon after the divestment of VSNL. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, however, denied any such investment.

Panda said the government seems to have shifted from the earlier classification of profit making and loss making PSUs to strategic and non-strategic undertakings.

Members belonging to the ruling National Democratic Alliance, however, strongly defended the divestment policy.

Kirit Somaya of Bharatiya Janata Party said it would ensure optimum utilisation of national resources and added various states including those ruled by Congress are also undertaking divestment.

Asserting that privatisation meant "optimal utilisation" of national resources, Somaiya said the number of PSUs which were incurring losses in 1997-98 was 104 and their total net loss amounted to over Rs 80 billion.

He asked the Opposition parties, especially Congress, to sit with the government and formulate the divestment policy, which was in an evolving process.

Declining to accept the offer, P R Dasmunshi (Congress) said his party "will never sit with BJP to organise a loot of the nation".

Asserting that Congress had initiated the privatisation process in the country, he said his party never stood for divestment of profit-making PSUs and sought to know why oil PSUs were being divested.

"Our public sector oil companies have taken their profits from about Rs 300 million in the '80s to Rs 240 billion at present," he said and asked whether government would consider putting oil PSUs in the same list as defence and atomic energy where divestment was not being allowed.

Launching a scathing attack on Divestment Minister Arun Shourie, veteran CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee asked the minister, who was present in the House, that in what capacity had he written articles in a newspaper criticising other ministers of the government he belonged to.

"He is behaving like a self-appointed advisor. I would like to know the response of other ministers in this regard," Chatterjee said, adding Shourie was not heading any PSU but was commenting on their functioning.

Referring to sick industries of West Bengal, which had been referred to BIFR (Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction), Chatterjee said: "all of them were initially in the private sector" during the erstwhile Congress rule in the state and the Left Front in 1977, decided to take them over because of their "sickness" and in the interest of the workers.

"But for you, earning more money (by selling off PSUs) is what matters. Human life has lost all relevance," he said.

Chatterjee hit out at the government for not even having a Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the ministry of divestment and demanded a thorough reversion of the policy of divestment which was "anti-national".

Launching a scathing attack, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said the government was selling off precious assets at a throw away price and cited the example of the deal involving Hotel Ashoka in Karnataka's Hassan district in which the property itself was valued at Rs 80 million.

Demanding an inquiry into this sale, Gowda wanted a re-examination of the divestment policy and said if necessary it should be scrapped. A property sold cannot be bought back, he said.

B B Ramaiah (Telegu desam Party) wanted an expert committee to be set up for the purpose of proper monitoring of divestment.

C N Singh (Samajwadi Party) said the government was selling off nation's property to foreign companies and in the long-term this would be disastrous.

Anand Rao (Shiv Sena) wanted setting up of a separate fund for those opting for VRS.

Anadi Charan Sahu (BJP) said the divestment process should be accelerated in a bid to augment the social sector and reduce the fiscal deficit.

Jyotiraditya Scindia (Cong) demanded to know why only "PSUs laying a golden egg" were put on the block for divestment and demanded that government explain the rationale.

He said divestment was "merely a way to bridge the growing deficit because the government is in a financial mess" and asked it to evolve a consensus with the concerned ministry before going in for any divestment.

P H Pandiyan (AIADMK) dubbed divestment as a "refined way of saying sale" and said there was no minister of sale anywhere in the world.

Arun Kumar of Samata Party, an ally of the BJP, said the government should review the divestment policy, particularly to keep the oil and energy PSUs out of its purview.

He demanded to know from the government why it was "in a hurry to sell profit-making PSUs at throwaway prices".

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