The government is learnt to have decided not to tinker with the new group pricing policy for fertilisers promoted by the Expenditure Reforms Committee (ERC) of the finance ministry. It will not be subjected to scrutiny by the group of ministers set up by the Cabinet.
The group of ministers will confine itself to suggesting ways and means of dealing with the four ailing public sector fertiliser companies.
These companies are Fertiliser Corporation of India Limited, Projects and Development India Limited, Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation and Pyrites Phosphates and Chemicals Limited.
The group, comprising finance minister Yashwant Sinha, disinvestment minister Arun Shourie, HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi, heavy industries minister Manohar Joshi, and fertiliser minister SS Dhinsa, will decide whether these companies should be wound up, sold off or retained by the government and revamped.
The government's decision implies that the ERC's recommendations regarding dividing the industry into groups for the purposes of fixing prices remain valid.
It is learnt that the fertiliser department has shelved the note on group pricing prepared for the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA),
