Dept of Public Enterprises brought under Finance Ministry

Central government has decided to bring Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under finance ministry.

Key Points

• DPE was earlier under Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
• It has been brought under finance minister in a bid to ease coordination regarding future disinvestment plans.
• Finance ministry now comprises of six departments, after inclusion of DPE.
• Other five departments are:

1. Department of Economic Affairs,
2. Department of Expenditure,
3. Department of Revenue,
4. Department of Investment & Public Asset Management and
5. Department of Financial Services.

Background

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced about this change in her budget speech 2021-2022.

Why DPE brought under Finance Ministry?

This move aims to ease disinvestment process. Finance ministry already has a department dealing with Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE). So, inclusion of DPE would result into better coordination on issues like disinvestment. Other identified areas include coordination on general policy matters impacting CPSEs, evaluating their performance, and review of capital projects.

What was the need?

The move was need of the hour as government needs to speed up divestments in public sector units in order to raise funds.

What were the concerns earlier?

Earlier, issues like disinvestment used to face delay because finance ministry and DIPAM had to coordinate with DPE.

Sahkarita Mantralaya

Ministry of Cooperation or Sahkarita Mantralaya was also be carved out from Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare.  It existed under agriculture ministry.

About Department of Public Enterprises

In 1965, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) was constituted, following the recommendation of 52nd Report of Estimates Committee of 3^rd Lok Sabha (1962-67), under Ministry of Finance. In 1985, BPE was made part of Ministry of Industry. In 1990, BPE was made a full-fledged Department called a Department of Public Enterprises (DPE). DPE is the nodal department for all Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and formulates policy related to CPSEs.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2021