It is well known that most of these undertakings are over-manned, and downsizing their workforce has been top priority for them. Their strategy for pruning the workforce had taken into consideration the natural attrition resulting from retirement every year. That will now be postponed for at least two years. As a result, PSU plans for offering voluntary retirement may have to be revised. More importantly, private sectorcompanies are under no compulsion to revise the retirement age of their workers, as a result of which PSUs will face yet another hurdle in their struggle to attain competitiveness. The government is a monopoly, and is not affected by competition, but PSUs operate in a mixed economy, and will have to face the music. The decision shows that, in spite of all the talk of PSU autonomy, little has changed in the bureaucratic mindset. Common sense would suggest that policies which have an effect on the bottomline cannot be implemented across the PSU spectrum, regardless of their differing levels of profitability. While profitable undertakings can shoulder the burden of keeping excess staff for some time, extending the rules to NTC mills is clearly absurd. Populism, rather than concern for the health of the public sector, has dictated government policy.