President of India Ram Nath Kovind approved the ‘Government of India (Allocation of Business) Three Hundred and Sixty First Amendment Rules, 2021’, which brings the ‘Department of Public Enterprises (Lok Udyam Vibhag)’ which was part of the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises under the Ministry of Finance.
- The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) will be the 6th Department in the Finance Ministry. It has been brought under the Finance Ministry to enable better coordination and better facilitate the Government’s Disinvestment programme.
- The ‘Government of India (Allocation of Business) Three Hundred and Sixty First Amendment Rules, 2021’ amends the ‘Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961’.
- The other 5 departments under the Finance Ministry are Economic Affairs, Revenue, Expenditure, Investment & Public Asset Management and Financial Services
Amendment
‘’Ministry of Finance (Vitta Mantralaya), after the sub-heading (v) Department of Financial Services (Vittiya Sewayen Vibhag), following sub-heading shall be inserted, namely: – (vi) Department of Public Enterprises (Lok Udyam Vibhag)’
The Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises shall now be called as Ministry Heavy Industries (Bhari Udyog Mantralaya).
- The amendments were notified by the Cabinet Secretariat and will come into force.
Key Points
i.The amended rules reiterated 12 work areas for DPE which include Coordination of matters of general policy affecting all Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), monitoring & evaluating the performance of PSEs, categorization of Central PSEs (CPSEs) including the conferring of ‘Ratna’ Status and others.
ii.However, the Heavy Industries Ministry will be the nodal ministry for the automobile and capital goods sector. It will have 44 areas for administrative work which includes CPSEs like BHEL, Cement Corporation, Scooters India and others.
Finance Minister’s Privatisation agenda
i.During the 2021-22 Budget Session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a big privatisation plan. It included privatisation of 2 Public Sector banks and 1 General Insurance Company.
ii.As part of the divestment plan for the financial sector, Government decided to opt for a mega Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and residual stake sale in IDBI Bank during the FY beginning April 2021.
Recent Related News:
February 4, 2021, The cabinet approved the new Public Sector Enterprises (PSE) policy that gives a clear roadmap for disinvestment in strategic and non-strategic sectors.
About Ministry of Finance
Union Minister – Nirmala Sitharaman (Rajya Sabha MP – Karnataka)
Minister of State (MoS) – Anurag Singh Thakur (Lok Sabha MP – Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh)
About Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
Union Minister – Prakash Javadekar (Rajya Sabha MP – Maharashtra)
Minister of State – Arjun Ram Meghwal (Lok Sabha MP – Bikaner, Rajasthan)
