Dev: Glad tidings

New Delhi, March 13: The government is planning to expand the navratna list and include seven more companies in this elite category.

The likely lucky seven are Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation, PowerGrid, National Hydroelectric Corporation, BSNL, Nalco and Hindustan Aeronautics. These companies have submitted proposals, seeking the coveted navratna status.

“The proposals for granting navratna status to seven more public sector companies have been received. The proposals are under consideration,” minister of heavy industries and public enterprises Santosh Mohan Dev stated in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The companies that currently enjoy the navratna status are Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC, GAIL, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, MTNL, NTPC and SAIL.

Navratna companies enjoy greater financial autonomy than other public sector units. The board of directors of these companies can approve all decisions relating to capital expenditure and no clearance is required from the government.

In case of equity acquisitions in a joint venture company, a navratna can take an independent decision for investments up to Rs 1,000 crore. However, this is subject to the condition that total investment in all such joint ventures is below 30 per cent of the net worth of the navratna company.

The facility has been put in place to free the management of these companies of red tape so that the firms can take quick decisions to take on competition.

Revival plan

According to Dev, the Board for Reconstruction of Public Enterprises (BRPSE) has received revival proposals for 41 central public sector undertakings since February and it has already forwarded its recommendations for 29 companies.

On the revival of public sector undertakings, finance minister P. Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha today that the government would revive 13 sick units at a cost of Rs 6,100 crore. These 13 companies are among the 28 units recommended for revival by BRPSE, the minister said.