Union Cabinet Decisions: The Union Cabinet has approved the privatization policy of government companies. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman can give detailed information about this in the budget presented on 1 February. The central government is going to reduce its stake in companies of many sectors.
New Delhi. The Union Cabinet has cleared the way of Privatization Policy for Public Sector Undertakings (PSU). Detailed information about this will be included in the speech of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget. On the basis of this policy, the roadmap of government-owned units in the strategic and non-strategic sectors will be decided. It has been discussed in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. A media report quoting two senior government officials has revealed this.
It has been said in this report that the complete information about this policy and the strategy for privatization of PSUs will be in the budget speech of the Finance Minister, which is going to be presented on February 1.
Nirmala Sitharaman announced the self-sufficient India package in May 2020. This policy is also a part of this package. At that time the government had said that such a coherent policy is being prepared, where all the sectors will be opened for private sectors. The government had also expressed its intention to keep the PSUs in one of the four sectors in the presence of PSUs and merge, privatize or bring them under the purview of a holding company.
A detailed discussion about privatization in departments and ministries,
non-strategic sectors of companies the government wants to get completely out of . However, on the basis of the case, it will be decided that from which companies of these sectors will the Central Government terminate its stake. There has been a detailed discussion about this between government departments and ministries. That is why it has taken so long to get the privatization policies approved.
A senior official has been quoted as saying that a meeting of the group of ministers who have prepared this policy has been held on privatization policies.
What do strategic sectors consist of?
According to the initial draft prepared by Deepam, about 18 sectors have been selected as strategic sectors. This includes power, fertilizers, telecom, defense, banking and insurance. They are classified into Mining and Exploration, Manufacturing and Processing and Services.
