The government may hand over the management of the loss-making Central Inland Water Transport Corporation to another company.
The Board of Reconstruction for Public Sector Enteprises has recommended that the management of the PSU be given out on a contract till it started earning profits.
Shipping ministry officials said that once the dues of the CIWTC were cleared, the government equity in the company would be divested. The shipping ministry's proposal to BRPSE had suggested privatisation of the corporation.
The Divestment Development: Complete Coverage
Officials said that the management contract was expected to be modelled on the lines of those given by the World Bank. Under such a contract, CIWTC would be taken over by another company for a period of five years.
The company taking over CIWTC on a management contract would have to turnaround PSU over a period of one-two years. The company operating CIWTC would then be entitled to a 90 per cent share in profits, officials said.
They added that the government already had some parties including the Goa Shipyard Ltd interested in taking over the management of the Rajbagan Dockyard under the CIWTC. It was, however, looking for a company willing to take over entire corporation under the management contract.
The shipping ministry had proposed privatisation of the corporation on the grounds that running CIWTC was an unviable proposition for the government. Not only was it incurring losses, it had not shown any satisfactory results of the earlier revival packages, shipping ministry sources said.
Of the Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.4 billion) sanctioned under the four-year restructuring package in 2001, the Centre was to provide a support of Rs 76.5 crore (Rs 765 million), while the rest of it was to be raised from sale of assets.
