Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister, has stated that he proposes to mop up Rs. 40,000 crore in this fiscal year 2011-12 by selling shares of the PSUs. So far an amount of Rs. 1144.55 crore has been received through disinvestment this financial year.
The government decision to disinvest PSUs are not only to mop up funds for government. In fact there are other reasons which go deep. The implementation of the neo-liberal policies include enriching the MNCs and big business by handing over to them the scarce natural resources and manufacturing units with the government for a meagre amount. The government want to implement its slogan that ” Business is not the business of the government”. Unless the democratic movement in the country and the united work force put a stiff fight, the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of the MNCs and big business within a short time. Maximum propaganda among the people is a must to stop this loot of the PSUs.