PSUs ask for easier norms to facilitate overseas buys

We are asked to follow those procedures which are really cumbersome and time-consuming. By the time we are through with them,we often find that competing nations or individual entrepreneurs have managed to secure them. So what we told NMCC was that if we were to acquire mineral assets abroad,then procedures would have to be simplified. Many of these consultants should be allowed on a nomination basis rather than through tenders, a CMD told The Indian Express after the meeting. The meeting was conevened by NMCC yesterday at the behest of the Prime Ministers Office (PMO),which was keen that PSUs,which require coal or iron ore to fire their furnaces,should acquire such mines overseas. Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs Principal Secretary T K A Nair had earlier convened a meeting of the PSU chiefs on February 5 to ascertain their problems in executing acquisitions. Subsequently,NMCC was asked to discuss acquisition-related issues with the PSU chief and iron out the bottlenecks.

Even the Steel Ministry was very keen that its giants like National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC),Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) secure mineral assets overseas. We have asked our PSUs to begin scouting for such assets abroad, Steel Secretary Atul Chaturvedi told this newspaper.