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Opposition attacks govt on Balco in Rajya Sabha

Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday mounted a frontal attack on the government over the controversial divestment of public sector Balco alleging "it was an outright sale and scandalous".

Raising a Calling Attention motion on the issue, senior Congress member Pranab Mukherjee questioned the very purpose of the divestment of government's 51 per cent equity to private sector Sterlite Industries for Rs 5.51 billion when the aluminium giant was making steady progress and profits.

He said it was regrettable that though Balco was a profit making company, the government decided to divest its shares "simply because the Divestment Commission has recommended".

"We would like to know the rationality of the government and divestment of the shares of a profit making company, which has a good track record", Mukherjee said.

Strongly supporting the Congress, CPI (M) member Dipankar Mukherjee said that the divestment process of Balco was 'scandalous' and apprehended that even the sale of Indian Airlines would go the Balco way.

He wondered how the reserve price of Rs 5144 million for 51 per cent government equity of Balco could be determined by executive order.

"I feel this (reserve price) has to be decided by Parliament and Parliament alone".

Mukherjee wanted to know whether the objective of the government in divesting public sector units was to bridge the resource gap due to increased consumption expenditure by selling capital assets. If that was the case, divestment was not permissible, he said.

He wanted to know what the government was proposing to do with the proceeds of the Balco divestment.

Mukherjee said that the government was silent on what it proposed to do with the 270 MW captive power plant in Balco whose cost at today's price would be around Rs 12 billion.

Dipankar Mukherjee asked what was the hurry for the government to go ahead with the divestment of the Balco saying that the "government should have the courage and tell it was in distress".

"Choosing the valuer is scandalous", he said adding that "government must come out clear".

The CPI (M) member said the reserve price of the unit should be determined by Parliament.

Budget 2001

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