Marking a clear shift in the centre's policy, Finance Minister, Arun Jaitely asserted that four public sector companies, which cannot be revived would be shut down, meanwhile, he ordered the rest of them to shape up to deal with free competition in an era when state-run firms had lost monopoly rights and preference. Additionally, he pointed that government was trying to revive seven ailing PSUs via disinvestment and the joint venture route.
The policy marks a clear shift from the one witnessed during UPA regime. The UPA government had dragged its feet on shutting down even the terminally sick PSUs. As a result of which, the government kept on pumping money to pay salaries and keep these money guzzling entities running, all for the sake of political expediency. Elaborating further, he unveiled that a total of over Rs 1.57 lakh crore has been pumped into these enterprises over the past few years.
Further, the minister noted that 79 central public sector enterprises incurred losses, of which 49 were sick. At the same time he also highlighted that, 19 of them have turned around, indicating that there will be an effort to revive the viable ones that remain competitive. In view of this, the Finance Minister asked these PSUs to learn to function like any other business organization in a competitive environment and not be run like a government department.