As part of the Government’s divestment programme outlined in the Union Budget, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday cleared stake sales in state-run ONGC, Coal India ltd and NHPC. The CCEA approved a five per cent stake sale in ONGC, 10 per cent in Coal India ltd and 11.36 per cent in NHPC.
The divestment, which will be taken up through the offers-for-sale (OFS) route, is expected to raise Rs45,417 crore — Rs19,000 crore (ONGC), Rs23,600 crore (Coal India) and Rs2,817 crore (NHPC).The Government had 68.94 per cent stake in ONGC, 85.96 per cent in NHPC, and 89.65 per cent in Coal India lTD. The CCEA was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Government also set an ambitious target of generating 100 crore Aadhaar cards by 2015 in the country. This will be done by undertaking enrolments in four States — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand — by next year.Besides, the Government will push for 100 per cent mobile coverage in the North Eastern region. Both the plans were cleared by the Union Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) respectively on Wednesday.
The CCEA approved launch of Phase-V of the Unique Identification (UID) scheme for undertaking enrolments in four States. As on date, more than 67.38 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated by the UIDAI since August 2010. The Government hopes to make it 100 crore once fresh enrolments take place. The total expenditure incurred by UIDAI since inception is Rs4,906 crore (as on 31 August 2014).
The Cabinet also gave its approval for the release of an additional installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect fromJuly 1. This is an increase of seven per cent over the existing rate of 100 per cent of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise.The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission.
The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be of the order of approximately Rs7,691 crore per annum and Rs5,127 crore respectively in the financial year 2014-2015 (i.e. for a period of eight months from July, 2014 to February, 2015).
The Cabinet also cleared a Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North-Eastern States to provide 100 per cent connectivity. Besides providing seamless 2G mobile coverage to such villages that have no connectivity at all, the project will provide seamless network coverage at National Highways in the region through 321 towers. At present, there are 43,200 villages in this region out of which 9,190 (21 per cent) of the villages are unconnected to any mobile network. This project will cover 8,621 villages out of the 9,190 unconnected ones (20%) by 6,673 mobile towers.
The project will also substantially improve connectivity between district headquarters and the State capital through alternative optical fibres. The proposal entails an estimated expenditure of Rs 5,336.18 crore and the plan will be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
Among other decisions taken by the Cabinet was to provide financial support to the National Export Insurance Account (NEIA) for overseas project. This will increase the capacity of the NEIA Trust to underwrite more large size projects in difficult countries with reasonably significant Indian content.
An investment approval for construction of Pakal Dul Hydroelectric Project in Jammu & Kashmir was given on Wednesday while progress of Jan Dhan Yojana, under which so far 3 crore bank accounts have been opened, was reviewed.The CCEA also cleared proposal to give financial support to 11 sick Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under the Department of Heavy Industry to clear their statutory dues like Provident Fund, Gratuity, Pension, salary etc.
A proposal for implementation of the Integrated Coffee Development Project of the Coffee Board which will also look at research and development of coffee was also cleared along with proposal for development of additional liquid bulk terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
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