Kerala - Kochi   

FACT revival package to be sent to Finance Ministry

K. Venkiteswaran

KOCHI: The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) is understood to have recommended a revival package submitted by the management of Fertilisers and Chemicals (Travancore) Ltd.

Talks are going on between the top management and the BRPSE in New Delhi.

The recommendations of the Board are to be sent to the Finance Ministry, trade union sources here said.

The package resubmitted by the FACT management had been cleared by the Fertilisers Ministry and had been pending with the Board for long, sources said.

The Union Finance and Fertiliser Ministries are said to be convinced about the future prospects of FACT, especially after the commissioning of the LNG Terminal in Kochi by the last quarter of 2009.

FACT management is understood to have requested the Union Government to write off 50 per cent of the total outstanding loan amounting to Rs. 574 crores as on March end this year and convert the balance into Government equity in the public sector.

Besides, it had sought waiving of Rs. 81 crores outstanding towards interest as on March 31 last.

Politicians had also been urging the Government to announce a revival package for FACT, one of the largest public sector undertakings in the State, employing a large number of personnel.

Trade union sources here attributed the slide in the prospects of FACT to the `wavering fertilizer policy' and also to the high cost of the main raw material, naphtha, which had pushed the company into the red.

They pointed out that the price of naphtha was around Rs. 4,000 a tonne when FACT commissioned the ammonia and urea plants here. But the ruling price now for naphtha was around Rs. 20,000 a tonne.

The management has reportedly assured the Board that it requires only less than two years' time for the company to break even once the revival package is implemented.

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