High powered committee for speeding up PSUs overseas acquisition

27 Jul 2011 Evaluate

The government is expected to form a high powered committee under the chairmanship of cabinet secretary, to speed up the process of overseas acquisition by Public Sector Units (PSUs). The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under the ministry of heavy industry has already forwarded the recommendation to cabinet for formation of committee.

As per the DPE secretary Bhaskar Chatterjee, the DPE expects to get Cabinet’s approval by next month and subsequently the high powered committee would be formed. The committee is expected to increase the pace of acquisition deals by PSUs as they would no longer need Cabinet approvals. Many PSUs in crucial infrastructure sectors such as oil, coal and mines, which are exploring for overseas deals, would hugely benefit from the move.

The commercial decisions pace has to be increased, as PSUs are getting tough competition, especially from China, for acquisition of natural resources in foreign countries. It would also offer a cushion to PSUs to fight the competition posed by the private companies in India looking at similar opportunities overseas. 

Under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth, a high powered committee will also have secretaries of the administrative ministry of the respective PSUs, their Chairman and managing directors and representatives of the ministries of external affairs and finance.  

The DPE secretary Bhaskar Chatterjee said that the department had proposed a higher investment limit of Maharatna PSUs to Rs 25,000 crore to enable these blue chip companies to compete with global players. The increase in investment power of these top central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) would come in handy for them in the highly competitive race for natural resources like oil, gas and coal.

Presently, Maharatana PSUs get more financial autonomy than other CPSEs can take investment decisions up to Rs 5,000 of their own, any investment decision larger than Rs 5,000 crore needs the approval of cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA). ONGC, SAIL, TPTC, IOC and CIL are Maharatana PSUs.

It is expected that the recommendation of increase in the PSUs investment limit to Rs 25,000 crore, independent of government intervention would facilitate aggressive bidding by Indian CPSEs and can help them get hold of some prized assets abroad.

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