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Reforms will continue with human face: Manmohan Singh
New Delhi, May 20: Unveiling the economic agenda of the new Congress-led coalition government, Prime Minister-designate Manmohan Singh today said reforms would be continued with a human face and the government was committed to building strong private and public sectors while pursuing selective disinvestment.
New Delhi, May 20: Unveiling the economic agenda of the new Congress-led coalition government, Prime Minister-designate Manmohan Singh today said reforms would be continued with a human face and the government was committed to building strong private and public sectors while pursuing selective disinvestment.
"Development will be key priority, the aim of reforms would be to remove poverty, increase employment through relief to decentralised sectors," Singh said asserting "privatisation was not part of our ideology and PSUs like ONGC and Gail will not be privatised".
"PSUs like Gail and ONGC will remain in the public sector. There is no intention to privatise them. Similarly, there are Nationalised Banks which will remain in public sector. These will not be privatised," he said.
"If they can't compete at equal footing with the private sector or become a drag on the exchequer, then by all means they will be allowed to raise resources from market through disinvestment," he said promising that the interest of the workers would be protected. "We will not do anything which will throw large pool of workers jobless", he said emphasising that "while remaining as public enterprises, if they (PSUs) want to raise resources through disinvestment or through sale of equity, they are most welcome".
Wherever public sector enterprises want to compete with private sector in domestic and foreign, there is no reason why they should not be allowed to go forward, he said.
Bureau Report
"PSUs like Gail and ONGC will remain in the public sector. There is no intention to privatise them. Similarly, there are Nationalised Banks which will remain in public sector. These will not be privatised," he said.
"If they can't compete at equal footing with the private sector or become a drag on the exchequer, then by all means they will be allowed to raise resources from market through disinvestment," he said promising that the interest of the workers would be protected. "We will not do anything which will throw large pool of workers jobless", he said emphasising that "while remaining as public enterprises, if they (PSUs) want to raise resources through disinvestment or through sale of equity, they are most welcome".
Wherever public sector enterprises want to compete with private sector in domestic and foreign, there is no reason why they should not be allowed to go forward, he said.
Bureau Report