The core group of secretaries has also cleared the total sale of both the PSUs, said official sources. They, however, refused to comment on the mode of privatisation - whether strategic sale would be preferred, as the current policy is, or some other route would be tried.

It may be recalled that the sell-off panel had recommended "reduction in employee strength through a suitable VRS and transfer of management control in Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation of India to a private partner by disinvestment of 51 per cent equity."

For STC, the commission had suggested two options: "through a strategic sale to a bidder from a group of pre-qualified bidders through global competitive bidding and transfer of management"; and closure.The commission had recommended 95 per cent equity sale to the strategic buyer, while the rest of the shares were to be reserved for employees opting for VRS, at the rate of 200 or fewer shares per employee, at a discount to the strategic buyer's price, "as this would provide continuation of the trading operations under private ownership and management with sustainable levels of employment."

A decision on the two trading corporations was expected at the last Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) on August 29. However, commerce and industry minister Murasoli Maran, whose ministry is directly responsible for the two PSUs, was not available. The department of disinvestment is confident that at the next CCD meet on September 26 the sale of the two trading companies would be okayed. At the last CCD on August 29, too, a decision was taken to sell HZL SIIL, Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Insecticides Ltd to strategic partners. MMTC had a turnover of Rs 3,145 crore in 1998-99 and Rs 1,910 crore during April-October 1999. The turnover of STC came down from Rs 2,867 crore in 1997-98 to Rs 1,894 crore in the next fiscal.

In the 1999-2000, the turnover is estimated to be still lower at Rs 1,538 crore. Profit after tax, however, increased from Rs 2.6 crore in 1997-98 to Rs 13 crore in 1998-99. Profit after tax for the last fiscal is not available. u