KOCHI: The much awaited Rs 991 cr special financial assistance package for the ailing public sector Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd is unlikely to materialize soon as the union government has put the issue on the backburner. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had issued instructions to the ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers to avoid temporary measures and opt for a comprehensive rehabilitation policy for the ailing PSU, sources said.
Confirming a delay in getting the clearance for the financial package, FACT chairman and managing director Jaiveer Srivastava told DC on Thursday that “the matter is still under the consideration of the union government”. He declined to comment on the likely time-frame for the clearance of the package. Earlier, the company was expecting that the special package would be cleared by the first week of August. The clearance would have helped the company to clean up its balance sheet. A green signal for the package would have enabled the company to raise resources on its own for a slew of expansion and diversification projects.
The company had drawn up medium and long term investment plans totaling Rs 7,000 cr in the next five years. The main components of the plan included augmenting the capacity of factomfose production to three million ton in the next five years. The investment plan was drawn up at the suggestion of the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers to submit a long-term revival package for the company as the short-term financial assistance would not serve to sustain the survival of the company on a long term basis.
