People’s Commission Urges Parliament to ‘Fully Investigate’ CEL's  Sale   https://thewire.in/government/peoples-commission-urges-parliament-to-fully-investigate-profit-making-cpse-cels-sale 

The Centre has approved the sale of 100% equity shareholding of the government in Central Electronics Ltd to Nandal Finance and Leasing for a paltry sum of Rs 210 crore.

The Peoples’ Commission on Public Sector and Public Services (PCPSPS) has released a statement “The proceeds from the disinvestment will be meagre compared to the real value of the assets sold because of the inbuilt bias in hasty privatisation towards undervaluation of assets. Moreover, the corporate sector which would buy the public assets would be raising most of the needed resources from the public sector banks.”

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) empowered alternative mechanism for disinvestment – which includes finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari, Minister of state (independent charge) for science and technology Jitendra Singh – on November 30, 2021 approved the highest bid of Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt. Ltd for the sale of 100% equity shareholding of the government in CEL.

CEL is run by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), It earned a gross profit of Rs 136 crore in FY21. As of March 31, 2021, the market value of the 50-acre land the CPSE possesses was worth Rs 440 crore as per the circle rate. It has orders in the pipeline worth Rs 1,592 crore, and with these orders alone, CEL would be able to provide the Union government with a gross profit of about Rs 730 crore. It also has Rs 132 crore as collectible dues from the government agencies.

The transaction is expected to be completed during the current financial year 2021-22 (ending March 2022), an official statement had said.