HYDERABAD: Faced by criticism of its reported move to divest from public sector undertakings, the Congress Government offered to amend its controversial order and affirmed that the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation and Singareni Collieries would not be privatised.

Finance Minister K. Rosaiah sought to play down the significance of GO 5 issued on July 18 by claiming that it was merely an "assessment" of the financial performance of the PSUs for the purpose of the budget. While it indeed spoke about disinvestment, it did not indicate any plan to privatise or close down any PSU.

Mr. Rosaiah, who addressed a press conference here on Monday to rebut the statement of CPI (M) State secretary B. V. Raghavulu that the APSRTC and Singareni were in "danger" of being privatised, said both these PSUs were performing "exceedingly well" by reporting profits for the first time after several years.

`Sort of warning'

He maintained that the Government had made the assessment of the financial performance of the PSUs as "a sort of warning" to prompt the sick ones to work better and improve. The annual output by Singareni Collieries had gone up from 33.8 million tonnes to 36.13 million tonnes in two years while the APSRTC reported a net profit of Rs 140 crores. "Under these circumstances, it will be illogical for any one to think that they will be privatised or closed down. The Government had indicated this long ago providing an assistance of Rs 400 crores to the corporation.

Mr Rosaiah said the Government, however, could launch certain steps to further improve the performance of the APSRTC and Singareni. Referring to the voluntary retirement schemes offered by Singareni covering 65,000 employees as alleged by Mr Raghavulu and others, he said it was "not compulsory." The employees could exercise their option in any way they liked.

Sugar units

He also ruled out privatisation of cooperative sugar factories. He said the Government, in fact, wanted to revive them. He referred to the guarantee provided for a loan of Rs 59 crores from the National Cooperative Development Corporation for four units. He said the Government was seeking another Rs 107 crores to provide the same assistance to the rest of the factories for modernisation.

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