RINL unions threaten to stall asset valuer visit to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant
The unions have given a call for bandh of Visakhapatnam city on March 28
image for illustrative purpose
Visakhapatnam: The trade unions of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, have threatened to block the visit of the asset valuer for conducting due diligence study of the public sector unit-a prerequisite before formally putting it up for sale to private parties as part of strategic disinvestment.
The unions, who feel that the Centre has stepped up the effort to aggressively pursue the privatisation of RINL, its subsidiaries and joint ventures as per the January 27, 2021 decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs immediately after the results of the elections held in five States are announced, have given a call for bandh of Visakhapatnam city on March 28.
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant has a production capacity of 7.3 million tonne. RINL recorded an impressive performance by achieving a sales turnover of around Rs 18,000 crore, the second highest since its inception during 2020-21 representing a growth of 13 per cent and the sales volumes reaching 4.45 million tonne with a growth of 4 per cent.
Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Samiti chairman Ch Narsinga Rao told Bizz Buzz on Sunday that they will not allow the valuer to step into the premises of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. He said the BJP-led NDA Government was conspiring to undervalue the assets of RINL going by the way Air India and other public sectors were sold to private companies for a song.
Rao said when the Centre had thought of choosing the IPO route, it had put the net value of RINL at Rs 4,889 crore in 2013. RINL has a land bank of 22,000 acres. At the revised market rate of Rs 28,000 per square yard, the land value itself will be Rs 2 lakh crore according to a conservative estimate.
The union leader said a special legislation was passed in the State Legislative Assembly to acquire land from the farmers in 1971 at the prevailing market rate of 1966-67 at Rs1,250 per acre to avoid artificial increase in land prices. Department of investment & Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry of Finance has already launched an exercise to receive bids/proposals for engagement of asset valuers for strategic disinvestment of RINL. The complete details regarding scope of work, eligibility conditions, bid evaluation process, format for submission of technical and financial bids are mentioned in the Request for Proposal (RFP), which was notified on March 11.
"There seems to be a contradiction in the conditions," pointed out an employee. He said one of the conditions is that the asset valuer has to complete the work/service within 60 days from the date the firm is asked to start the valuation work while another clause says the contract will be valid for three years and extendable by one more year.
