The government has approved a Rs 517 crore (Rs 5.17 billion) package to clear the pending salaries and statutory dues of 4,500 employees of 24 ailing PSUs, Heavy Industries Minister Santosh Mohan Deb said on Thursday.
He said the salaries will be paid immediately while the statutory dues of three PSUs -- HMT, Bangalore, Hindustan Cables and Heavy Engineering Corporation -- would be cleared during the winter session of Parliament when the government would present a bill for supplementary grants.
The proposal, mooted by the ministry of heavy industries, was cleared on Wednesday at the Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The minister said the Centre has also extended purchase-preference policy for PSUs for another year without making any changes in the existing provisions.
Under this policy, 10 per cent purchase preference is extended to tenders of Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) and above.
The earlier extension for purchase preference policy expired on March 31, 2004. While heavy industry ministry was in favour of extension of the scheme without changes for five years but the Cabinet has extended it for one year.