A cautious Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is learnt to have prevailed upon the Coal Ministry to explore the special dividend route in the Coal India ltd (CIl) disinvestment imbroglio, as the Government which is already hurt by the Coalgate scandal, is not in favour of inciting the Maharatna company’s unions into staging a strike at the fag end of its tenure by offloading its stake in it.
The PMO, sources have said, is of the view that if a strike happens in CIl, it would have long ranging impact on the company’s production which may percolate on its financial performance. This is something, which it does not want to happen, especially when the UPA Government is approaching the end of its tenure at the Centre and is already bearing the brunt of various allegations related to the Coalgate scam.
As reported earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a meeting held with the Coal Ministry last month had asked it to prepare a viable action plan to resolve the disinvestment issue. And though the special dividend route is gradually emerging as the most viable option considering the CIl’s unions belligerent stand against the 5 per cent offloading of the Centre’s share in it, it has been learnt by The Pioneer that the PMO is keen on the special dividend option as it does not want to see a strike in the company on the matter.
While Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has been known to playing safe on the issue and has favoured talks with the unions before embarking upon any option, sources have indicated that even the PMO seems to share the same concern and is said to have asked the ministry to tread carefully on the divestment decision.
Having already bowed before the unions by cutting down the initial 10 per cent divestment in CIl to 5 per cent, the UPA leadership, sources added, does not want to leave anything to chance and therefore has more or less decided on the special dividend route.
While CIl Chairman S Narsing Rao has indicated that a decision on the matter would be taken during the company’s board meeting after the third quarter results (scheduled for next month), it seems clear that the special dividend offer could be favoured by it.
Amid all this, the Government is upbeat about wrapping up the exercise before the end of this fiscal as even the unions seem to favour the special dividend offer.
General Secretary of All India Coal Workers Federation (AICWF) Jibon Roy had told this newspaper after last month’s meeting between the PM and the Coal Ministry that they are waiting for an offer from Jaiswal to negotiate the issue.
“Now after this (meeting between PM and Jaiswal) we hope that the Government will talk to us. We are not averse to any other option and only want to ensure that disinvestment of CIl does not take place where Centre sells off its stake in it,” Roy had said last month.
The CIl union consists of left leaning AICWF and CITU, BJP-backed Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Congress-affiliated INTUC. Apart from INTUC, none of the other labour bodies are supporting the disinvestment move and till last month were ready to strike work. In fact they had given a notice for a strike between December 17 and 19, but later withdrew after it emerged that the divestment route may not be taken by the Government.
Initially as per the original plan, the Government was aiming to sell its 10 per cent stake in CIl to raise Rs 20,000 crore. However after unions’ pressure, it reduced this to 5 per cent stake sale, which too faced opposition from the workers’ union.