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CPI(M) MP writes to FM against sale of CEL to private company with 'no expertise'There are more 'benign and effective ways' to raise additional fiscal resources, Brittas said
Shemin Joy
DHNS
Last Updated IST
FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Credit: PTI file photo
FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Credit: PTI file photo

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman against the sale of Ghaziabad-based Central Electronics Ltd to a private firm with no domain experience at "throwaway prices".

While Brittas has also written to Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on the issue, another CPI(M) MP Dr S Sivadasan has demanded immediate intervention of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Public Accounts Committee Chairman to "save the CEL and stop corruption".

In his letter to Sitharaman on January 13, Brittas said the CEL is being sold for a "paltry sum of Rs 210 crore" to Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd, which is a financial intermediary with "no competence in concerned field, managerial or technological".

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Referring to Premier Furnitures and Interiors holding 99.96% stake in the firm that bought CEL, he said, "we cannot dismiss the allegations that the government is proposing to sell a strategic PSU, which is manufacturing strategically important components having ramifications in the defence sector also, indirectly to a furniture company."

He said the CEL has 50-acre land it could cost over Rs 500 crore as per its annual report in 2019-20. The CEL is a profit-making company and it has orders worth Rs 1,592 crore in pipeline and Rs 132 crore as collectible dues from government agencies, he said.

"The proposed sale of CEL causes serious concerns among the public about the undervaluation of tangible and intangible assets of Central Public Sector Enterprises during the disinvestment process," he said.

Brittas also found the decision to mobilise resources through privatisation of public assets as "flawed" as the private entities buying the public assets would be raising most of the needed resources from public sector banks.

"The sale of CEL implies underselling a highly valuable asset base of the government for a paltry sum to a company that may change its role to the detriment of the national interest. The tall claims to consider the sale as a source of non-inflationary fiscal resource for the budget is fallacious, since such an argument is patently invalid,” he said.

There are more "benign and effective ways" to raise additional fiscal resources, he said.

He said the transaction adviser or asset valuer could not discover the true potential of CEL, which has around 130 engineers of proven competence and capable of tapping more than 1,000 retired technical personnel who could be accessible even today.

Earlier, Congress too raised the pitch against Narendra Modi government's disinvestment programme as it accused BJP regime of "compromising" the country’s strategic interests by selling the "profitable" CEL to a private firm with no domain experience but having links to BJP leaders at a rate that is much lower than the value of its assets.

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(Published 16 January 2022, 14:16 IST)