FACT employees on warpath over privatisation proposal

Protest is brewing among employees of the public sector FACT over the recommendations of NITI Aayog to sell the company’s assets.

The Save FACT Action Committee, a combine of trade unions, said they would oppose any move to sell the assets as the company has the potential to grow into a big fertiliser entity to serve the entire southern region.

The committee has decided to chalk out an action plan involving the public against the privatisation move on the lines of the protest against the disinvestment move in 1996.

K Chandran Pillai, convenor of the Save FACT Action Committee, said that the favourable pricing of natural gas, which is used as a feedstock for production, would definitely enable the company to improve its performance in the current year. At a time when efforts are on to take advantage of the gas pricing, proposals to privatise the company cannot be accepted, he said.

He denied any lack of expertise or management failure for the company’s dismal performance over the years. It was the issues connected with the government policy of not allowing FACT to decide on the pricing for marketing the products that had impacted its performance, he said.

The inadequate compensation given to urea, even when naphtha was in use, the higher LNG price at $20 per mmBtu at the time of switching over to natural gas also affected its profitability. At the same time, fertiliser companies in North India had received LNG at much lower prices, he added.

National Confederation of Officers Association, the forum of the executives of Central PSEs, has called for consultations with stakeholders before dismantling PSUs, saying that these companies have been set up by the ‘sweat and hard work’ of generations of workers.

According to Baby Thomas, secretary general, the government and NITI Aayog displayed complete lack of understanding of the purpose and role of PSUs.

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