The Indian government has put on the backburner plans for privatization of any government-run steel mills, government sources said on Tuesday, February 27.
The sources cited a recent statement by minister of steel Jyotirditya Scindia that expression of interest (EoI) for strategic sale of government equity has not been issued.
At the same time, the government has officially called off the privatization of Salem Steel Plant (SSP), a stainless and special steel producing mill which is part of state-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
According to the government, despite floating several EoIs, none of the shortlisted bidders at any of the stages were interested in following up to subsequent stage of the process. Hence the last EoI has been annulled.
Though not officially stated, since the privatization of government companies was a politically sensitive issue, strategic sale of both RINL and SSP will not be carried forward as the national election is scheduled to be announced in the next few weeks.
