Congressmen have different takes on selloff

Although Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the Common Minimum Programme allowed minority sale of government's holding in profitable central public sector enterprises while retaining majority ownership along with management control, his party colleague Jairam Ramesh said the Congress was comfortable with bringing a resolution in Parliament that no disinvestment in the "navratnas" would be possible without parliamentary approval.

Ramesh, a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, apparently to resolve the logjam over the issue of disinvestment in profit-making PSUs, said at a party briefing, "We are ready to go the whole hog on not allowing privatisation (of the navratnas) under any circumstances, making it impossible for any future government to privatise the nine companies without parliamentary approval."

So, while in the morning, Chidambaram reiterated the government's stated position, in the afternoon, a party colleague suggested the Congress was amenable to negotiations on the matter.

Chidambaram was replying to a calling attention motion on disinvestment in profit-making public sector undertakings, especially Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.

The issue was raised by Communist Party of India's Gurudas Dasgupta and S Sudhakar Reddy in the Lok Sabha.

"There are a number of large profitable unlisted central public sector enterprises which will gain by getting listed on domestic stock exchanges through an initial public offer of a small proportion of the shareholding of the government," said Chidambaram.

The government in May had decided to sell 10 per cent of its 67.72 per cent equity in Bhel. Up to 15 per cent of the equity offered for sale were to be reserved for Bhel employees.

While admitting that there could be disagreement on the reasons for disinvestment, the finance minister said, "Monetising a part of a owner's holding at an appropriate time at an appropriate price is good business." He said while dividend gave a return on the par value of a share, monetising shares fetched higher returns.

The Left parties had been saying that the CMP barred the sale of profit-making PSUs and announced a boycott of the ruling United Progressive Alliance's coordination committee until the government made its views known on the matter.

Ramesh said a parliamentary resolution could be a confidence building measure between the Left and the UPA government. "The Bhel disinvestment matter has been put in the cold storage till a consensus is reached," he added.

Ramesh's statement, especially since he is also a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, has to be seen as a reflection of the thinking at the top levels of Congress leadership.

If the Left accepts the suggestion, it will a letdown for both the finance minister and the prime minister. Both are reportedly not in favour of any such parliamentary guarantees, for they dilute the authority of the government.