KOLKATA - All profitable public sector enterprises (PSEs) should be listed on the stock exchanges to realise their true worth and raise funds for the social sector and infrastructure projects, according to the chief of the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE).

“All profitable PSEs should be listed on the stock exchange. The government is also following a policy of getting all such PSEs listed so that their true worth can be visible in the public eye,” BRPSE chairman Nitish Sengupta told mediapersons here Tuesday.

Citing an example, he said if a company like the country’s largest coal miner Coal India off-leaded even five percent of its shares, it could easily walk into the Fortune 500 list.

However, he affirmed that the disinvestment policy did not mean privatisation as the government would not allow its shareholding to go below 50 percent.

“On the other hand, unloading of some shares to the public or to the employees will not only bring sizeable sums to the government which can be utilised for investment in the social sector or infrastructure. It will also make a larger number of people holders of shares in PSEs,” he said.

“Forty public sector companies are now registered in the stock exchange. Capital appreciation of their shares is around one-third of the total capitalisation of shares in the BSE and NSE,” he said.

Spelling out the government policy on turning around sick PSEs, he said: “In some select cases in recent times strong PSEs have been given the responsibility of turning around sick PSEs. This was seen in the case of BHEL handling Heavy Plates or Coal India handling Bharat Coking Coal.”

He said due to the BRPSE’s efforts, several companies have returned to profitability after a long time, and mentioned Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi, in this regard.

The BRPSE was set up by the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for advice on dealing with ailing state-owned companies, besides improving the performance of PSEs.