LONDON- Britain s Gulf War


Examples of this nature are many. In TISCO, which is normally taken to be a private sector unit belonging to the House of Tatas, public financial institutions hold about 38 per cent of equity capital and constitute the single largest shareholder. In the Associated Cement "Company (ACQ, public financial institutions hold as much as 40 per cent of the equity capital. In VOLTAS, the financial institutions' holdings amount to about 30 per cent. And in ESCORTS, as much as 40 per cent. More striking is the case in Indian Iron and Steel Company where the holdings of public financial institutions constitute about 51 per cent of the total virtually making it a de facto Government company. All these have benefited largely from the use of public funds; but there has been little or no public direction of them in line with socio-economic policy of the Government. Indeed, many of them have drawn, apart from equity capital, substantial loans from the Government or financial institutions on which they pay a rate of interest very much lower than the rate of dividend they declare to the equity shareholders.