In a significant development the Mines Ministry has given its consent to the Department of Disinvestment’s (DoD) proposal to offload Centre’s 10 per cent stake in National Aluminium Company ltd (NAlCO). The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led Naveen Patnaik Odisha Government, however plans to stage state-wide protests against the decision and senior party leaders are expected to meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley soon to express their opposition.
While the Centre aims to garner around Rs1,200 crore through the 10 per cent stake sale, the Odisha Government, which earlier also had protested NAlCO’s stake sale in 2013 when the Congress-led UPA Government was at the helm of affairs, is of the view that a profitable entity should not be put up for stake sale.
“The Government cannot sell family silver. Our party will vehemently oppose the move. We will stage agitations against the decision in the state and in the meanwhile are also trying to meet the Finance Minister,” BJD’s leader in lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mehtab told The Pioneer. Official sources informed that the Mines Ministry has conveyed to the DoD that it has no objection regarding divesting of Government’s 10 per cent stake in NAlCO and that it can go ahead with the move.
Though the timing of the divestment procedure is not known, sources said that it may happen soon as the Mines Ministry has given its consent. However it would not be easy for the Government to go ahead with its plan as NAlCO’s disinvestment is not only opposed by the BJD Government but also by the company’s own employees.
Earlier this month, when NAlCO’s name was included in the list of 10-odd PSUs in which the Government aims to sell its stake in order to meet this fiscal’s disinvestment target of Rs41,000 crore, the company’s employees have been staging demonstrations ever since. Naveen Patnaik himself issued a statement saying that “Nalco is a profit making CPSU. I think that disinvestment should not take place there”. He had said this while speaking to media persons in Bhubaneswar earlier this month.
The Centre holds 80.93 per cent equity in NAlCO, whose market capitalisation as on 31, 2015 stood at Rs12,022.82 crore. The company has integrated and diversified operations in mining, metal and power with sales turnover of Rs7,024 crore in 2013-14.