The Hindu Business Line : No move to review ONGC's navratna status: Aiyar

THE Petroleum Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, today said that his Ministry had no plans to review the navratna status of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Even before the issue of autonomy for the public sector company, raised by the ONGC Chairman Mr Subir Raha, had died down, speculations over the Petroleum Ministry's proposed move to strip ONGC's navratna status began doing the rounds.

Mr Aiyar told reporters that the letter in question, written by the Petroleum Ministry to the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), does not talk about reviewing the navratna status of the oil major. The Ministry, in fact, has requested the DPE to suggest necessary action with regard to the company, which exercised navratna powers but had not signed the memorandum of understanding with the nodal ministry for 2005-06.

Each year, the Government and the navratna companies sign a MoU stipulating production targets for the year. All MoUs are intermediated by the task force of DPE, Mr Aiyar said.

The ONGC Chairman has maintained that the company had already signed the MoU and was awaiting similar action from the Ministry. Denying this, Mr Aiyar cited the letters written by his Ministry to ONGC, seeking to work out a revised MoU incorporating the recommendations of the taskforce.

The taskforce, according to the Minister, felt that the two broad parameters as indicated by the Secretary Petroleum, Mr S.C. Tripathi, with respect to foreign venture and domestic production target for crude/gas profit based on the company's own technical assessment, be included in the MoU.

Mr Aiyar further said that the Secretary had suggested that the expected returns from investments made by ONGC through its subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd should be reflected in the MoU. In fact, the Government nominees on the board of ONGC are also reportedly raising the issue at the meeting.

The Ministry's contention was that repeated communications to ONGC had yielded no response.

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