Centre says 'no' to remerger of RINL-SAIL

Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad in response to a query by Srikakulam MP Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Rao said "steel manufacturing falls in the non-strategic sector. The decision of the government to privatise RINL is in line with the new PSE Policy

Visakhapatnam: The rejection of the suggestion for remerger of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) with steel major Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and reiteration to go ahead with privatisation of Visakhapatnam-headquartered Navratna company has left the employees fuming.

Cutting across party lines, the unions have come down heavily on the BJP-led NDA Government for its stubborn decision to hand over land-rich RINL, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant which expanded its capacity from three million tonnes to 7.3 million tonnes with a total investment of Rs 16,300 crore, to private parties on a golden platter. RINL has a land bank of over 20,000 acres.

"There seems to be a systematic attempt to hand over RINL to private parties of choice by the NDA Government though it has tremendous potential to bounce back if it is allotted captive iron ore and coal mines to guarantee its long-awaited raw material security," D Adinarayana, general secretary of Visakha Steel Workers' Union, the recognised union of RINL, told Bizz Buzz.

The new team of office-bearers of Steel Executives Association (SEA) immediately after its election had represented to the Steel Ministry to shelve the privatisation plan and remerge RINL with SAIl to create a mega public sector company to serve mutually-beneficial interest. While SAIL has captive mines, RINL has an excellent land bank and workforce.

Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad in response to a query by Srikakulam MP Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Rao, said "steel manufacturing falls in the non-strategic sector. The decision of the government to privatise RINL is in line with the new Public Sector Enterprise (PSE) Policy."

He said as per the policy, existing PSEs have been broadly classified under strategic and non-strategic sectors. It has also been laid down that in strategic sectors, only a bare minimum presence of the existing PSEs at holding company level will be retained under the government control.The remaining enterprises in strategic sector will be considered for privatisation or merger or subsidiarization with another CPSE or foreclosure.

He said "PSEs in the non-strategic sector shall be considered for privatisation, where feasible, otherwise such enterprises shall be considered for closure. Steel manufacturing falls in the non-strategic sector."

Union Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste earlier in a written reply told Rajya Sabha that no proposal to merge SAIL and RINL is under consideration of the government.

RINL clocked a turnover of Rs 17,980 in 2020-21 and Rs 28,000 in 2021-22 improving its contribution to exports in the past two financial years. The company earned a net profit of Rs 835 crore during last fiscal. "It's unfortunate despite groundswell of support to retain RINL in the public sector, the Central Government is bent upon its total privatisation for which it has already appointed merchant bankers to start process for inviting expression of interest (EoI) from interested buyers," Visakha Steel Employees' Congress general secretary Mantri Rajasekhar said.