Niti Aayog making new list of sick PSUs for divestment: Amitabh Kant

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

NITI Aayog is preparing another list of sick PSUs that can be privatised, its CEO Amitabh Kant said on February 21. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had asked the think- tank to look into the viability of sick state-run companies. The government think-tank has already recommended strategic divestment of 40 sick public sector units.
"NITI Aayog has already recommended 40 sick PSUs for strategic disinvestment. Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is working...
on it and the process is on advanced stage.
"...We have already sent four lists (of sick PSUs). We are working on the fifth list.We will also prepare sixth and seventh list (of sick PSUs)," Kant said in New Delhi.
The government expects to raise Rs 80,000 crore from PSU disinvestment in the next fiscal, lower than Rs 1 lakh crore raised this financial year.
The 2017-18 Budget had set the target of disinvestment in public sector units at Rs 72,500 crore.
This included Rs 46,500 crore as disinvestment of CPSEs, Rs 15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment and Rs 11,000 crore from listing of insurance companies.
As per the latest government report, there are 77 loss- making PSUs at the end of March last year with a total aggregate loss of Rs 27,360 crore.
A CPSE is declared sick after it has accumulated losses in any financial year equal to 50 per cent or more of its average net worth during four preceding years. There are 65 units in the list of sick public sector units as of March 31, 2014.
The CPSEs which are part of this list include MTNL, Air India, Bengal Chemicals, Konkan Railway Corporation, Hindustan Shipyard, HMT, Bharat Coking Coal, ITI, Bharat Wagon and Engineering, Tungabhadra Steel, Scooters India, Heavy Engineering Corporation, National Jute Manufacturers, Burn Standard, Fertilizer Corporation of India, British India Corp among several others.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget 2016-17 speech had said NITI Aayog will identify PSUs for strategic sale. "A new policy for management of government investment in Public Sector Enterprises, including disinvestment and strategic sale, has been approved. We have to leverage the assets of CPSEs for generation of resources for investment in new projects," Jaitley said