Opposition heat derails Modi’s disinvestment agenda
Photo credit twitter balmer lawrie
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, March 7: The Adani saga washed away the first half of the Budget session, with Congress leading the Opposition charge on the plank of ‘crony capitalism’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s disinvestment agenda in the last year of his government appears to be the casualty of the Opposition heat on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While the Modi government’s only privatization of meaningful significance has been Air India, the Centre is now dreading the prospects of moving ahead with the disinvestment agenda. The officials who are privy to the deliberations claimed that there is least scope of the government moving ahead with privatization for fear of the Opposition backlash in the election year.
Sources said that the management of the PSUs, which have been shortlisted by the NITI Aayog, for privatization are also girding up to protest “selloff at throwaway prices”. Sources said that the NITI Aayog and the department for investment and public asset management (DIPAM) have conducted the valuation of the PSUs, which are not even one-fourth of the valuations claimed by such enterprises. “Since there is a wide variation in the valuation being done at the behest by the NITI Aayog by the involvement of private entities, there is a growing concern that the Opposition will get a readymade agenda to whip at the government for selling the silver of the house at throwaway prices,” added a senior official.
Balmer Lawrie’s logistics arm was slated to go off the shelf for disinvestment first. But the government is stick with the crossfire between the management of the PSU and the DIPAM officials over the valuations. The PSU management has, sources said, dug in heels, arguing that they are making profits, besides having critical assets across the country. But the company is being valued at just about Rs 1600 crores for the disinvestment purposes, sources said, which is much below the assessed valuation by the management.
The management of the PSU, sources said, believes that the company is being eyed at by one of the large business conglomerates, which currently has no stakes in the logistics business. Similar trends are emerging with the others PSUs, which had been shortlisted and approved for privatisation.
With six more states to go for Assembly elections this year leading to the Lok Sabha polls early next year, the officials claimed that the government may not have the appetite left to withstand the Opposition charges of “crony capitalism”, while risking a paralyzed Parliament throughout the year.
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