The government will soon appoint global consultants to suggest strategies for reviving the sick and loss-making public sector enterprises.
"We want our PSEs to be no less than the Tatas and other well-performing corporations. We are in the process of appointing global consultants to give a corporate look to our PSEs that are not faring well," minister of state for heavy industries and public enterprises Arun Yadav told PTI in an interview on Friday.
"Our aim is not only to bring a turnaround in these PSEs but also diversify some who have potential for this. These consultants will suggest the strategies for their revival," Yadav said.
"Reviving sick and loss-making PSEs is our priority and this will be done in a phase-wise manner", Yadav said.
Asked if the move was aimed at divesting stake in the identified PSEs once they start making operating profits, he said it was too early to say that. "Right now the priority is to revive them."
Based on the recommendations of the Board for Restructuring of Public Sector Enterprises, the government has approved revival or restructuring of 15 PSEs such as the Cement Corporation of India Ltd, Heavy Engineering Corporation, HMT (MT) Ltd and Tyre Corporation of India Ltd, Andrew Yule and Co Ltd, National Instruments Ltd and Bridge and Roof Co Ltd.
The number of loss-making state-owned enterprises was 54 as on March 2008.
The cumulative losses in these enterprises increased to Rs 96,636 crore (Rs 966.36 billion) in 2007-08 from Rs 77,826 crore (Rs 778.26 billion) in 2004-05.
The number of employees working in these firms have been reduced to over 200,000 employees in 2007-08 from over 300,000 in 2004-05 through the voluntary retirement scheme introduced in these enterprises.