With Trinamul Congress chief and railway minister Mamta Banerjee absent, as she is — as always — in Kolkata, the government Tuesday approved disinvestment of 10 per cent each in two West Bengal-based two PSUs — Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL).
Though the proposals were listed on the agenda for last week’s meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affa
irs (CCEA) as well, no decision could be taken then due to the presence of Ms Banerjee, who has been strongly opposing such disinvestment.
However, sources in the government said Tuesday’s decision was possible only as the result of a “tacit understanding” between the government and Ms Banerjee, who indicated that disinvestment of the two PSUs “should be carried out in her absence”. So an unscheduled meeting of the CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was called on Tuesday to clear the proposals, the sources added.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram, disclosing that the government had decided to offload 10 per cent of its stake in the two PSUs, said in CIL’s case it would offload equity through an initial public offering, while in HCL’s case it will issue fresh shares equivalent to 10 per cent of the pre-issue paid-up capital along with the government selling 10 per cent of its stake with a follow-on public offer.
The minister said the sale, with a five per cent discount offered to both PSUs’ employees, was likely in six months.
“Disinvestment of CIL would be through book-building process in the domestic market. One per cent of the equity will be offered to employees of CIL and its eight subsidiaries,” Mr Chidam-baram said, adding that the move was expected to generate abut Rs 16,000 crores.