PM holds high power meeting on reform process

PM holds high power meeting on reform process
EEB & AGENCIES

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 11: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today held an high-power ministerial meeting to review the reform process in a bid to hasten the disinvestment programme and restructuring of sick National Textile mills.

The meeting was attended by all the ministers holding economic portfolios including Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee, Heavy Industries Minister Manohar Joshi and senior officials, according to sources.

The meeting assumes significance in the face of growing differences with the Sangh Parivar and some of constituents of the National Democratic Alliance on the liberalisation process and disinvestment programme.

The Prime Minister's office was tightlipped over the details of the meeting. Though there was no structured agenda, the economic ministers are understood to have briefed Vajpayee on the critical economic issues confronting the government.

The Prime Minister is to meet Trade Union leaders tomorrow to discuss the government's plan of action on privatisation and corporatisation of the Public Sector undertakings. The thrust of the meeting is expected to be to evolve an acceptable and attractive VRS package for public sector employees.

Also there are several pending economic bills including Electricity Bill to give primacy to respective electricity commissions and the much touted Fiscal Responsibility Bill to establish an autocap on government expenditure and borrowing.

While the former is pending before parliament, the Fiscal Responsibility bill is unlikely to come up in the current monsoon session as some legal questions raised by the Law ministry are to be sorted out.

Global consultants A F Ferguson has submitted an interim report on the corporatisation of Department of Telecom Services (DTS) to the Telecom Commission. The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has proposed an entry fee of Rs 500 crore for the players of which Rs 400 crore would be in the form of bank guarantee and it would be refundable to the service providers depending upon the progress of rolling out of network.

The Government is considering imposing a two-tier duty structure on imports of second hand vehicles to give protection to domestic industry and prevent India from becoming a dumping yard for junk vehicles. The new automobile policy which is likely to be announced by the end of this month would, however, be in alignment with the WTO agreement. The Government is proposing to impose two slabs of import duty for used vehicles - one for vehicles less than five-year old and another for vehicles beyond five years.

Senior Indian government officials are likely to shortly submit a report to the cabinet on reforms for the tightly regulated sugar industry, trade officials said on Thursday. "We have urged the government to make the sugar sector more competitive by helping cut our cost of production, formulate a policy to improve efficiency of mills in high-cost areas and boost exports," one industry official said.

Consumer affairs and public distribution Minister Shanta Kumar met officials from the Indian Sugar Mills Association and National Federation of Sugar Cooperative Factories late on Wednesday to find ways to implement two-year-old recommendations of a senior committee on the sugar industry. "The Minister said the government will submit its report on the sugar sector reforms to the cabinet and later announce it during the parliament session," the official said.