New Delhi: The government is mulling setting up a Finance Corporation to utilise around Rs 2 lakh crore surplus cash of state-owned enterprises lying idle in banks. The funds may be used for purposes like reviving sick PSUs and investment in infrastructure projects. There are 70 ailing PSUs and the government believes 43 out of these can be revived.
“We are thinking of setting up a Finance Corporation to utilise the surplus cash with PSUs,” Union heavy industry and public enterprises minister Anant Geete said.
The minister said a couple of meetings have been held to discuss the proposal. Although the name and structure of the Body have not been finalised , it is being referred to as Finance Corporation as of now. The new fund would infuse new investments which could contribute in further boosting the economic growth of the country.
The entity may be a joint venture firm funded by seed equity from Maharatna and other cash-rich central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to administer and manage sick state-run enterprises that can be revived. A committee headed by NTPC Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury was constituted last year to examine the proposal of setting up the firm.
The committee was also tasked with identifying sources from which funds may be raised for the proposed entity as equity capital; and to recommend its organisational structure and interface with the ministries. The UPA government had also toyed with an idea of using PSUs’ surplus cash to boost the slowing economy.
