State may set up selloff department

"The government is likely to create a separate department for disinvestment on the line of the Union government so that the selloff process could be conducted effectively," a government official said.

The government resolution formalised a Cabinet decision to set up a technical secretariat and an experts committee to give recommendations to the state government.

The committee is to be headed by chief minister Narendra Modi.

After getting the final nod from Modi on the proposed units to be disinvested, a panel of consultants will be appointed for preparing documents and evaluating the assets and liabilities of various public sector undertakings (PSUs) of the state government.

The state is going ahead with its disinvestment drive to overcome the accumulated losses of the public sector undertakings, said a government official.

The total accumulated losses of the PSUs is more than Rs 5,500 crore, with the Gujarat Electricity Board and GSRTC alone accounting for more than Rs 4,000 crore as on March 31, 2002.

According to an internal official note, the investment of Rs 24,900 crore in 52 PSUs resulted in a dividend of only Rs 41 crore as on March 31, 2002.

The government's resolution for creating a separate department for disinvestment was adopted after taking cue from Karnataka, which has created a separate department of disinvestment, an official said.

The Andhra Pradesh government had also initiated the second phase of its disinvestment process under the department of public enterprises, said a government official.