Protest against move to sell off govt stake in fertiliser PSUs

Alleging "conspiracy" behind the Centre's move to sell off government stake in fertiliser PSUs through a strategic sale to corporate houses, senior Congress MP K V Thomas today said the Monsoon session of Parliament will witness a strong protest against "privatisation" of such units.
He said the BJP-led NDA government's bid to sell off the Centre's majority stake in Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) to private corporates will "kill" the country's farm sector.
"There is a strong proposal from Niti Ayog that major share of a number of PSUs including FACT should be sold in market. This shows the intention of the Government of India to hand over an important sector like fertiliser manufacturing to private corporate houses," Thomas said.

"After revamping the FACT, Government of India's intention is to privatise it and hand it over to corporate houses. That will affect the fertiliser prices in the country," Thomas, who is also the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, told PTI here.
The former Union Food Minister said the price of fertilisers manufactured in PSUs like FACT was decided and controlled by government and in case if it was sold out, that would pave way for the corporate houses to exploit crores of poor farmers in the country.
"It will virtually kill the country's farm sector," he warned.

"In the coming session of Parliament, we all MPs from Kerala and like-minded MPs from other states who is interested in protecting PSUs will stand together to protest against the privatisation move of Government of India, particularly of the fertiliser PSUs. There is a conspiracy behind this move. We will have agitations both inside and outside the House," he said.

Thomas, who represents Ernakulam seat in Lok Sabha, said
instead of giving a helpful assistance, Government of India gave Rs 1000 crore to FACT from the non plan-expenditure with an interest of 13.5 per cent.
"This action of Government of India has not helped FACT to come out of the present crisis. Even for the Metro project, the loan is given at the interest of 1 to 2 per cent only," he pointed out.

The Centre kick-started the disinvestment programme for the current fiscal with 11.36 per cent stake sale in NHPC and raised Rs 2,700 crore through the process.
It has lined up as many as 15 PSUs, including Coal India, NMDC, MOIL, MMTC, National Fertilisers, NALCO and Bharat Electronics, for stake sale in current fiscal.
FACT, India's first large scale fertiliser unit was set up in 4000 acres of land in Aluva near Ernakulam in 1943.