NEW DELHI, July 8: Four non-official directors will be inducted into the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) board after the government's recent decision to grant autonomy to the steel giant. ``The induction of four eminent part-time directors will improve the quality of board discussions,'' SAIL chairman and managing director Arvind Pande said.

He said the four non-official directors would be selected by a high-powered search committee. The company would suggest names if the committee approaches it. Welcoming the decision to free nine public sector undertakings from government control, Pande said, ``This will help us to be on a par with the private sector steel producers''. Pande said that financial autonomy was the biggest benefit of the government decision. SAIL will now be able to make capital expenditure without any monetary ceiling.

`Previously, we were required to get projects over Rs 100 crore cleared from the Planning Commission. Now we have to just get our investments appraised by financial institutions,'' Pande said. Pande said the decision would also help the company enter into joint ventures without taking the government's prior consent. However, at the moment, there were no joint venture proposals pending with the government. ``Nevertheless, it will help us in the future,'' he said. Asked whether the autonomy would change the company's prospects in the coming years, Pande said what was holding back SAIL was not freedom. `But we have to take a lot of internal actions,'' he said. On SAIL's performance in the first quarter of the current fiscal, Pande said, ``In financial terms, we may have had losses. But gradually we should pick up''.

He said all quarters were not equal, and normally the industry picks up in the third and fourth quarters of the financial year. SAIL, moreover, carries out its capital investment and maintenance work in the first quarter, he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.