The Hindu Business Line : Govt draws up plans for ‘people ownership of PSUs’

To the brass-tacks: The President, Ms Pratibha Patil, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Ms Meira Kumar, and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, going to Parliament on Thursday. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, June 4 The Government is drawing up a roadmap for listing and divesting of its equity in public sector units.

Also on the cards are an investment friendly regulatory and legal framework for public private partnerships (PPPs) and policy changes to re-orient subsidies so that they benefit only the truly needy.

Unveiling the reform agenda of the new Congress-led Government at a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, pointed out that citizens have every right to own a part of the shares of public sector companies while the government retains majority shareholding and control.

“My Government will develop a roadmap for listing and people ownership of public sector undertakings while ensuring that government equity does not fall below 51 per cent,” Ms Patil said, without using the “disinvestment” word in her speech.

Ms Patil said that the immediate priority of the Government would be to counter the effect of the global slowdown and ensure that the growth momentum of the economy is restored.

The Government will focus attention on small and medium enterprises, exports, textiles, commercial vehicles, infrastructure and housing as they have been adversely affected by the global economic slowdown, she added.

Highlighting the importance of returning to a higher growth path, the President pointed out that high growth was necessary to provide the Government the capacity to expand opportunities for employment. The high growth of the economy in the recent years had generated more resources for the Government to take up various initiatives.

Stating that the country had benefited from large foreign investment flows in recent years, the President said that such flows, especially the foreign direct investment, need to be encouraged through an appropriate policy regime.

“There is also a need to augment resources in the banking and insurance sectors in order to permit them to serve the needs of society better. Towards this end, my government will recapitalise the public sector banks to strengthen their financial position and also bring a legislation to establish a regulator for the pension sector,” Ms Patil said.

On the indirect tax front, the President said that the roadmap for moving towards a goods and services tax (GST) will be “vigorously” pursued by the Government.

The Government would also strive to reintroduce the Amendment Bill to the Land Acquisition Act and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill and get them enacted in the budget session of Parliament.

These Bills were prepared to protect farmers and other dependents on farming from unfair displacement. They were placed before Parliament, but could not be carried through.

The Government has also decided to enlarge the scope of works permitted under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) now limited to unskilled manual work. It would also endeavour to consolidate the flagship programmes in the next five years.

Banks and post-offices would be revamped to become outreach units for financial inclusion. Also, a delivery monitoring unit in the Prime Minister’s Office would be set up to supervise flagship programmes and iconic projects and report on their status publicly.

On the energy sector, the Government would be guided by the integrated energy policy. “The effort would be to see that at least 13,000 MW of generating capacity is added each year through a mix of sources — coal, hydel, nuclear and renewables. Also, the pace of oil and gas exploration will be intensified and India’s oil diplomacy aggressively pursued.

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