A challenging move by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

It is a welcome decision of the Centre to sell public sector units in order to revitalise the economy, which has been hit hard by sluggishness and inefficiency. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs. 6-lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) plan, listing out the government's infrastructure assets to be sold over the next four years.

By bringing in private participation, the Centre contemplates on monetising the assets better and with whatever resources the government obtains through monetisation, it will be put further investment into infrastructure building.

There are many PSUs in the country, which require urgent intervention by the government to set them right for the smooth functioning. First of all, identify the PSUs under the state governments and disinvest by the government and monetise the asset and give it to the private sector for its better operation.

But there are inherent problems of privatisation too. When railways/ road transport Corporations are privatised, there are chances of frequent hike of train fares or bus fares. The common man in our economy cannot afford to pay frequent hike up or exorbitant fare charges. So, the government must also ensure that people get jobs according to their qualifications and also get decent wages for their jobs.

However, in the Indian mixed economy, people are not that rich to pay the increased prices of commodities or services offered by the private and public companies. For example, electricity is an essential item to a household and a private company generating electricity and distributing it for higher price cannot be bought by a poor family. A complete privatised economy will be the ultimate end of a mixed economy.

T K Nandanan, Kochi