Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Clearing the suspension over the disinvestment process, the Centre on Thursday said that all profitable central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) will be listed and those already listed will have to give minimum 10% holding to public.
"All profitable listed CPSEs should need the mandatory
listing of 10 per cent public ownership," Home Minister P
Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting of Cabinet
Committee of Economic Affairs here.
The government has also decided that all unlisted CPSEs
which have made profit in the past 3 years and have a positive
networth should get listed on stock exchanges, he said, adding
that CPSEs would enter the market at "appropriate" time.
The decision will have a bearing on mineral major NMDC
and MMTC as the public shareholding in these companies is 1.62
per cent and 0.67 per cent respectively.
As per SEBI regulation, listed companies are required to
divest a minimum of 10 percent of the equity to the public.
The accruals from the disinvestment process would then go into the National Investment Fund. Proceeds of from the process would be used for capital expenditure in the social programmes like NREGA, informed the minister.
Earlier in the week, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that the government will hit the market with disinvestment of its PSUs only when conditions are favourable and good money could be raised.
As per the disinvestment policy of the UPA, the
government is committed to offloading equity in public sector
undertakings while retaining 51 per cent stake.
The government recently offloaded its shares in the Oil India Limited (OIL) and NHPC and proposes to divest equity in another power major NTPC and Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN).
"The public sector undertakings are the wealth of the
nation, and part of this wealth should rest in the hands of
people. While retaining at least 51 per cent government equity
in our enterprises, I propose to encourage people's
participation in our disinvestment programme," Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in his Budget speech in
July.