Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Disinvestment Govt banks on legal option to resolve HPCL sell-off impasse Our Bureau
The Minister for Disinvestment, IT and Communications, Mr Arun Shourie, with Mr Jairam Ramesh, Secretary, Indian National Congress, at the India Economic Summit in the Capital on Tuesday. --Kamal Narang
New Delhi , Nov. 25 THE Disinvestment Ministry is banking on the legal option to resolve the impasse created by the Supreme Court verdict on privatisation of HPCL and BPCL, but would continue with residual stake sale plans in companies such as CMC, VSNL, IBP & Co, IPCL and Balco. ``We are focussing on the legal option at this point,'' the Union Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, told presspersons on the sidelines of a WEF-CII seminar here on Tuesday. ``Disinvestment in all companies has been stopped for the time being, including Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and Hindustan Copper Ltd as we are facing the same difficulties'', Mr Shourie said when queried on whether the Government would go ahead with privatisation of PSUs other than oil firms in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. ``Let things be clarified first by the Supreme Court,'' he pointed out. The Minister, however, said that the sale of residual stake in companies such as IPCL, CMC, VSNL, IBP & Co and Balco will ``go on''. In fact, the process of selling residual stakes in privatised PSUs has already been kicked-off with the Government inviting initial bids for appointment of advisers for divesting its residual stakes in CMC and IBP, through offer for sale in the domestic market. The Supreme Court had, on November 17, revealed its mind to take a fresh look at the earlier ruling on HPCL and BPCL sell-off cases which said that privatisation of PSUs created through Acts of Parliament required prior approval from law makers. The re-consideration decision came after the Attorney General, Mr Soli J. Sorabjee, contended that although many decisions for privatising PSUs had been taken prior to the September 16 judgment halting privatisation of oil PSUs for want of prior Parliamentary approval, these have now been challenged in many High Courts relying on the HPCL/BPCL judgment. The Apex Court also stayed the proceedings before various High Courts on petitions challenging the disinvestment of SCI, HCL and Burns Standard Corporation Ltd (BSCL) as the Government sought transfer of these petitions to the Supreme Court for an authoritative pronouncement.
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