The Hindu : Front Page : Rs. 517 crores to settle dues of PSU staff

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 15, 2004

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Front Page

Rs. 517 crores to settle dues of PSU staff

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 14. The Union Government has announced a budgetary support of Rs. 517 crores to 24 loss-making public sector companies to clear the outstanding salary and statutory dues of 45,000 employees. It also decided to extend the purchase preference scheme for the public sector by another year, while raising the ex-gratia paid to public sector employees opting for the voluntary retirement scheme by 50 per cent

The Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister, Santosh Mohan Dev, told presspersons here today that the decision was taken at yesterday's Cabinet meeting. The payment of salaries to the employees till July this year would begin today and the process would conclude before Durga Puja.

In the first phase, the payment of statutory dues such as the provident fund of employees in 21 PSUs would be taken up.

In the case of three companies, the provident fund dues would be paid by December when Parliament clears the supplementary demands for grants. These are Heavy Engineering Corporation, HMT Bangalore and Hindustan Cables. He, however, clarified that other statutory dues of the employees in these companies would be paid.

As for the public sector purchase preference scheme, he said it was being extended till March 2005. Meanwhile, a Group of Ministers (GOM) would be appointed to review the scheme.

Rs.1,800 cr. loss

Officials said the estimated losses of the 24 PSUs under Heavy Industry was now Rs. 1,800 crores. The employees of the companies which had not implemented the pay scales recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission were facing hardships not only in terms of lower salaries but also while opting for VRS. The disparities were sought to be removed by enhancing the ex-gratia for VRS.

Later, the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said an empowered Group of Ministers had been set up to determine the price of the PSU shares for disinvestment.

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