‘Confident of privatisation of PSUs in pipeline in FY22'

Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary in the department of investment and public asset management (Dipam), tells Surojit Gupta & Sidhartha in an exclusive interview that privatisation of Neelachal Ispat and Central Electronics may be through during the current quarter, with the sale of BPCL and BEML likely by March, along with the mega LIC initial public offer. He stressed that the annual disinvestment target should not be looked merely as a number to bridge the fiscal deficit but part of a larger agenda to revamp the public sector and sell non-core assets, given the opportunity cost of holding on to companies that are loss-making or becoming obsolete. Excerpts from the interview:

- Surojit Gupta & Sidhartha

What are your learnings from the Air India privatisation?

The last privatisation happened many years ago and since then we have been doing minority stake sales. The eight disinvestment transactions that we did were from central PSU to central PSU, with the whole process under the government’s control. Air India was a complex transaction as nothing is there, unlike even BEML or Shipping Corporation. Because of the entire process, we have come to grasp a lot of things better.

In 2019, we changed the process so that Dipam could drive it and take a hands-off view instead of the administrative ministries running the show. We will further simplify the process as people were not pushing things earlier because they were afraid.

Now, we are more confident, several policies have been settled, many of the interministerial processes have been tuned. The bidders and advisors are also more aware of the process. This (transaction) will improve the climate for privatisation.

What does it mean for the other transactions such as BPCL and Shipping Corp? Will they move faster?