BHEL can deliver

Sontosh Mohan Dev: "PSUs are rising to the occasion."-ANU PUSHKARNA

Interview with Sontosh Mohan Dev, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

MINISTER of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Sontosh Mohan Dev is convinced that the new pay scales for Central public sector executives will go a long way in checking attrition. In an interview, he explained the Ministrys plans. Excerpts:

To what extent will the new pay structure for public sector enterprises stop senior executives from leaving for private sector companies?

Attrition is mostly from the higher levels. In this new pay package, people at the higher levels will get the maximum benefits. For 10-20 per cent higher salary, people may not leave public sector companies. There are examples where people have come back from foreign companies to work in the public sector.

What have been the major achievements of the Ministry during your tenure?

The first day I went out of this office with a demand for Rs.450-crore backlog statutory payment for several sick companies, almost all officers thought I would come back empty-handed. I argued with the Prime Minister that I personally felt it was a criminal action not to pay the statutory dues of the employees. The Finance Minister also agreed with me, but said it would have to be done in a staggered way. But then the Prime Minister intervened and said the funds should be given in one go. And we paid the entire amount to these companies. Even now, every three months we are giving funds for statutory payments to companies that are not doing well. They are showing improvement and rising to the occasion.

What is the vision for BHEL, particularly with regard to setting up nuclear power plants?

I feel the company is in an advanced stage of planning. Last year I went to France and reached an agreement with Alsthom. Out of the eight [nuclear] plants that the government has said will be built by BHEL, we have already signed two or three agreements. BHEL will be able to implement these projects faster than anybody.

Your department gave Navaratna status to Coal India with a precondition that it should get listed within three years. What is the progress on this?

They have started their internal preparation. But they still have a lot of time in hand before three years is completed.

Posts of independent directors are lying vacant in the boards of public sector companies. SAIL reduced its board size from 24 to 16. Will more PSUs opt for smaller boards?

It is up to the companies to decide. It is not compulsory. But there has to be a minimum number of board members. There was one company where my Ministry had asked SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] for a relaxation in this minimum number. M. Damodaran was SEBI Chairman then and he did not allow us.

What about your Ministrys plan to disinvest in some public sector companies? Is it on the back burner?

It is not on the back burner. Unless we get good prices, we will not sell. But the process is on. We will sell at the right time in companies such as Andrew Yule, Bishalgarh Power Plant and TideWater, to name some of them. Earlier, we sold land in the case of HMT. Now again there is demand for selling more land. But we may not get the prices we received earlier because rates have dropped.