The Hindu Business Line : No `compromise formula' yet on BHEL disinvestment

THE proposed disinvestment of 10 per cent equity in public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) is unlikely to take place in the near future, unless the Government takes on the political risk of glossing over the objections of the Left parties, which are providing outside support to it.

Some of the Left party leaders who attended the meeting with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, on Friday, told Business Line that the Congress had not offered any `compromise formula' on the issue. Instead, the Congress position was that the Government could not go back on the Cabinet decision to disinvest in BHEL. The leaders of the Left parties are understood to have replied that the Cabinet decision was a clear violation of the Common Minimum Programme which says that there would be no disinvestment in profit-making `Navratna' public sector companies.

"There is no ambiguity in our position," the Left leaders reportedly told Ms Gandhi.

Commenting on reports that the Government may opt for 5 per cent disinvestment instead of 10 per cent decided by the Cabinet, the CPI leader, Mr D. Raja, told Business Line that no such proposal had been mentioned at the meeting. "The Congress leader, Mr Ahmed Patel, is reported to have suggested this according to media reports. But that solution is not acceptable to us," Mr Raja said.

Asked about a possible resolution, Mr Raja clearly stated: "The Government has to roll back its decision. How can the Left give in on this issue."

Mr Raja was also critical of the way the Government went ahead with the proposed disinvestment of BHEL. "The Left parties had strongly opposed the move once the Cabinet decision was announced. The matter was brought to the notice of the UPA-Left coordination committee and yet we learnt from newspaper reports that the Government had gone ahead with the tender inviting lead managers to the issue. It seems the Government had no intention to pay heed our objections," the CPI leader said.

The proposed 10 per cent disinvestment in BHEL was supposed to be the first such exercise in the current fiscal. The proceeds from the disinvestment were to be earmarked for the newly created National Investment Fund (NIF) and not to the Government's kitty and the interest accruing on that in the Fund were to be used for expenditure on social projects, including education, healthcare and employment.

Since there has been no public sector disinvestment so far in this fiscal, no corpus has accumulated in the NIF.

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