Outgoing NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya has said the closure of 18-20 sick public sector units (PSUs) has gone “very well”, even as he made a case for expediting privatisation of loss making state-owned companies.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the NITI Aayog to look into viability of sick state-run companies.

“Closure of 18-20 sick PSUs have gone very well actually. And 17 loss-making PSUs are cleared for privatisation by the Cabinet. Unfortunately, progress on those have been slow.

“But it is happening in many cases, transaction advisers have been appointed. So even (in the case of) PSUs that were identified for strategic disinvestment, (progress) is happening, only thing is that it is slower,” Panagariya told PTI.

The government has budgeted to raise ₹72,500 crore through stake sale in PSUs in the current fiscal. This includes ₹46,500 crore from minority stake sale, ₹15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment and ₹11,000 crore from listing of PSU insurance companies.

On labour reform, Panagariya said the government was serious about it.

“The Labour Ministry has been working on four different labour codes (Wages, Industrial Relations, Social Security & Welfare and Safety and Working Conditions) which will replace the 40 plus laws that currently exists at the central level.”

Talking about growth, Panagariya said, “We should grow this year (2017-18) at about 7.5 per cent. In the fourth quarter of this fiscal, we might touch 8 per cent growth.”

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