Decisions will be taken by NITI Aayog, says Union Minister
Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur has stated that the Centre is taking up disinvestment of only the loss-making public sector enterprises and no injustice is done to the two Telugu States in the Union Budget.
Speaking at the party office and later at a talk here on Saturday on “Budget 2021 – A giant stride towards Atmanirbhar Bharat” organised by Laghu Udyog Bharathi, Mr. Thakur said that the decisions on disinvestment of PSUs would be taken by the NITI Aayog after categorising them as strategic and non-strategic undertakings. “Every PSU is not put for sale just like that,” he noted.
On privatisation of Vizag Steel Plant or Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) at Visakhapatnam, the Union Minister said that disinvestment of the PSU was taken up on the suggestion of NITI Aayog. He mentioned that every PSU that had been disinvested so far in the country had performed better and all the stakeholders including employees had benefited with better pay and the companies’ market cap.
In case there was any disinformation regarding disinvestment in any particular PSU, the Centre would try to clarify on doubts of the stakeholders from time to time, the Union Minister stated.
Responding to a question on the talk of injustice done to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the Union Budget, Mr. Thakur said that there was no discrimination meted out to any State and the Budget should be looked from the perspective of the country and not individual States. Funds for all programmes, schemes and project including Polavaram would be given as provisioned.
On the agitation against the new farm laws, the Union Minister blamed the Opposition parties for misleading the farming community and said the laws were only aimed at improving their income and not harming their interests.
On allocations for Telangana, the Union Minister said that a total of 15 projects including Vijayawada-Itarsi North-South freight corridor with an outlay of ₹29,586 crore, which were either completely in Telangana or the State is a part of the project such as lines passing through the State, were in different stages of planning, approval and execution. They include new lines to the length of 1,771 km, doubling of 1,422 km electrification of 1,450 km.
On devolution of funds to Telangana from the Centre during 2021-22, the Union Minister said the State would get a total of ₹13,990 crore tax devolution and ₹2,905 crore grants from the Finance Commission.
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