Chiefs of public sector enterprises prefer the public offer route for selling government equity in state-owned enterprises over strategic sale or sale of stakes to financial institutions through competitive bidding.

According to a survey of 10 of the 15 public sector chiefs who attended the CEOs' conference organised by the heavy industry department, only two were against divestment.

Most of them said public offer was the most transparent model. Some executives also wanted the government to plough back the divestment proceeds for the revival of PSUs, instead of transferring it to the proposed national investment fund (NIF).

The government intends to spend 70 per cent of the earnings on the NIF corpus to meet its social sector spending needs and earmark the remaining 30 per cent for revival of PSUs.

While a majority of PSUs expected the government to support them by continuing with the purchase preference policy till they became competitive, a few were indifferent and wanted endless government protection.

An executive, however, pointed out that the purchase preference had only benefited larger companies like Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, as only orders worth over Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) were eligible for the benefit. "Purchase preference were of no use as in many cases government institutions did not follow the policy," added another PSU chief.