Unions warn of strike over NITI proposal to sell Air India

Opposing NITI Aayog's proposal to privatise Air India and shut 28 PSUs, central trade unions, including the RSS-backed BMS, have threatened to go on strike and sought Prime Minister's intervention on this matter.
One of the bodies has even accused the government of "moving on expected lines to sell the country".
"BMS opposes NITI Aayog proposal to close sick PSUs... BMS demands that the government call a meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the revival plan of sick PSUs before proceeding to decide on the proposal of NITI Aayog. Otherwise, we will compel to come on to the street to oppose the move," BMS General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said in a statement today.

The statement follows NITI Aayog submitting its proposal to the Prime Minister's Office on strategic sale, privatisation of PSUs and closure of loss-making units.
The NITI panel, headed by its Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya with CEO Amitabh Kant and other members on board, has prepared a detailed blueprint on PSU reforms. The Aayog has already submitted two lists of PSUs for strategic sale and closure or sale of sick units.
Although the panels' recommendation has not been made public, some media reports suggest that it has pitched for reducing the government's stake to 49 per cent or below in PSUs at one go under the strategic sale option.

"The AITUC Secretariat has taken serious note and condemned the proposal for strategic sale of Air India, Chennai Petroleum, Madras Fertilizer and FACT by NITI Aayog," All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said in a statement.

"AITUC has also condemned Aayog's proposal to wind up 28 PSUs and long-term lease of ITDC hotels. AITUC appeals to the Prime Minister not to accept the proposals as submitted by NITI Aayog on strategic sale and winding up the so-called loss making PSUs and stresses on revival of these units."
Centre of Indian Trade Unions General Secretary Tapen Sen was more blunt: "We are opposed to it. The government is moving on expected lines to sell the country".

Sen said further, "What is surprising is that now the government wants to sell those PSUs on which crores were spent for revival. This will definitely be one of major issues at the nation-wide Bharat Bandh on September 2, 2016."
Indian National Trade Union Congress Vice-President Ashok Singh echoed his point, saying the union is against the proposal to sell sick PSUs and will oppose this.
The government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 56,500 crore for this fiscal. Of this, Rs 36,000 crore is to come from minority stake sale in PSUs and Rs 20,500 crore from strategic sale.

The government kickstarted the disinvestment programme for the current fiscal with 11.36 per cent stake sale in NHPC. The government raised Rs 2,700 crore through the process.
During 2015-16, the government managed to notch up Rs 25,312 crore through disinvestment, less than half the target of Rs 69,500 crore.
Gupta said between 2009 and now, only six CPSEs got
listed. In 2012, approval was granted for listing of four CPSEs. "This has been taking so much time."
While two PSUs got listed in 2009, three made a debut in 2010 and one in 2012. However, no state-owned companies got listed on the bourses between 2014-2016.

While the administrative ministries don't have much of a problem, it's the CPSEs which say that they will be exposed to higher accountability, transparency, much wider disclosure norms and big set of compliance, Gupta said. "So there is a inertia not to get into that."
Once CPSEs are identified, the listing process will run parallelly in different CPSEs across departments. "Don't think if the number of CPSEs is very large, the exercise is sequential. But the transaction have to be done at the appropriate done," he said.
"We will bring out guidelines and mechanism to complete different steps in a time bound manner as has been directed in Budget," he added.