The government is considering 23 more public sector undertakings (PSUs) for disinvestment as part of its programme to privatise all PSUs except those relating to defence and national security.
Mohan Guruswamy, advisor to the finance minister, said that the government was going ahead with disinvestment of five PSUs and another 23, including some oil companies, had been recommended for the purpose.
Guruswamy, who was speaking at inaugural session of the third Indian Oil and Gas Conference here yesterday, said that in the next four to five years the government should get out of all industries except those concerned with defence and national security. This would encourage competition, cut losses and reduce bureaucratic interference in their functioning.
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Even in the oil sector, according to Guruswamy, there was no need for all the four marketing companies to remain under government's control. At best, he said, one or two companies like Indian Oil Corporation should be retained by the government.
On disinvestment programme, he said the exercise for selling shares of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the Gas Authority of India Ltd was on.
Elaborating on the 23 companies targeted for disinvestment, Guruswamy later told newspersons, "these companies are meant for both strategic sale and privatisation".
This apart, eight state-owned units will be closed and seven others have already been recommended for strategic sale, Guruswamy said.
The advisor to the finance minister also ridiculed the assessment made by World Economic Forum managing director Claude Smadja regarding the economy and said that"we are among the fastest growing economies of the world".
Guruswamy said Claude had pegged India's economic growth during 1998-99 at 5-5.2 per cent without much basis or access to information.
The finance ministry, Guruswamy said, "which receives the information first", was certain that the growth rate would be over six per cent.
This made India among the fastest growing economies of the world, the finance minister's advisor said.
He also discounted Claude's prediction that the fiscal deficit would be around 6-7 per cent against the budget target of 5.6 per cent.
Guruswamy also asserted the deficit would be very close to the target.