Page 18 - The Indian EYE 040921

OPINION APRIL 09, 2021 | The Indian Eye 18

Reliance Group chairman Mukesh Ambani Public sector bank employees on strike against privatization

pressurized the PSUs to pay man affirmed that all the an- ty CPSE Index made up of 11 raised Rs.85,000 crore through
more dividends. For example, nounced disinvestment pro- PSU stocks from the energy, disinvestment in 2018–19. The
Modi government ordered posals including the LIC IPO metals, financial services and trend has continued and in-
ONGC to pay Rs. 7764 crores would be completed this fiscal. industrials space. The Bharat creasing. Ms. Nirmala Sithara-
in 2016-17 and Rs. 8470 crores She had first made the mega 22 ETF, managed by ICICI man has targeted Rs.1.75 lakh
in 2017-18. LIC paid Rs. 2697 announcement of the IPO in Prudential Mutual Fund, fea- crores from disinvestment in
crores during 2019-20 which the last year’s budget. tures 22 companies drawn her latest budget on February
ideally belonged to policy hold- However, the reserves of from 11 different sectors, with 1, 2021. Apart from this, Modi
ers as you never know when a LIC belong to policy holders, private sector firms such as government has finalized a
calamity like COVID-19 can and not to Modi government. L&T and ITC thrown in. Then plan even to monetize the land
happen and require LIC to pay But Modi government is simply the Employees Provident Fund and other assets of PSUs like
large sums to relatives of the bent upon robbing all and fill- Organization (EPFO), a stat- Air India and BSNL which
deceased. For its policyholders, ing the pockets of his cronies. utory body under Ministry of are located in most expensive
LIC had reserved the remain- Previously, new PSU IPOs Labor, was forced to invest part of metropolitan cities
ing surplus of Rs 51,257.12 have been launched in a such workers’ money in CPSE ETF by appointing Department of
crores during the same period. senseless manner that they and got returns of a pathetic Investment and Public Asset
The third disastrous policy flopped at the stock market 1.89% while it has to pay 8.5% Management (DIPAM) as the
for PSUs had been that Modi where market price per share interest to the workers on their executioner.
government forces them to buy sunk far below the issue price EPF savings. To conclude, we can say that
back their own shares. Under leading to heavy losses creat- The trade unions rightly the ineptitude of Modi govern-
such pressure of Modi govern- ing favorable conditions and protested the EPFO’s decision ment in managing a sound fis-
ment, ONGC did a share buy- enough justification for pri- well in advance. In all, using cal policy having enough bud-
back for Rs.4022 crore under vate corporates to grab them ETFs including that of Anil getary sources of income, and
which a percentage of govern- throwaway prices. Ambani, Modi Government the greed of his cronies to pri-
ment holdings were technical- The fifth route is PSUs raised Rs.48,325 crore though vatize PSUs at throwaway pric-
ly transferred to the company. disinvestment through mutu- all ETFs. The Department of es, is taking the country in the
The forced share buybacks al funds and exchange traded Investment and Public Asset dangerous direction of bank-
from 11 PSUs—Coal India, funds (ETFs). In disinvest- Management (DIPAM) Joint ruptcy, poverty, and inequality
NTPC, NALCO, NMDC, NLC, ment through the ETF route, Secretary Venudhar Reddy through stunted or even nega-
BHEL, NHPC, NBCC, SJVN, the government sells its equity Nukala revealed that in 2018– tive GDP growth. Once the sale
KIOCL, and even from a holdings in select PSUs to a 19, LIC and PSBs were asked of all PSUs has been complet-
cash-strapped HAL—fetched fund company which runs an to invest `25.000 crore in ETFs ed, even Modi’s cronies cannot
Modi Government another ETF mirroring a readymade trading in PSU stocks. This is survive under such calamitous
`1,03,000 crore. Share buyback index. After that the ETF sells how Modi Government has fiscal policy. Privatization with
is nothing but another name of units in this readymade port- been sucking the PSUs dry, the professed goal to achieve
extracting cash dividend from folio to thousands of public in- so that they get the excuse efficiency and wealth creation
the unwilling PSUs. vestors to partly own the basket of loss-making units to sell at under such circumstances is
The fourth route to drain of PSU stocks being offloaded throwaway prices to their cro- just a joke.
PSUs of their cash is issue new by the government. However, nies.
initial public offerings (IPOs). the ETFs are run by Modi’s The sixth rout is outright Views are personal and do not
Presenting the Union Budget cronies such as the CPSE ETF, sale of PSUs. Finance Min- reflect the editorial opinion of
on February 1, 2021 Finance managed by Reliance Nippon ister Arun Jaitley had an- The Indian EYE Newsweekly
Minister Nirma la Sithara- Mutual Fund, tracks the Nif- nounced that government

www.TheIndianEYE .com