Monday, September 3, 2007

Privatization :only solution

Hi everyone,
Following the discussion in class about pros and cons of privatization and public undertakings,I think some excerpts from an article by Naira Yakoob are worth mentioning.

Privatization means transfer of risk by the government or public sector to the private sector by giving up management control and usually ownership (at least majority shares) in an enterprise. It differs from commercialization as in this case the government retains business risk and ownership but makes changes in the way the company operates so that it runs on business principles. Privatization or de-nationalization helps to establish a capitalist economic system, competition, readily available products and services, high quality, more exports, better services, more opportunities, growth, etc. The primary objective of privatization should be to find the private owner who is most likely to improve the performance of the company. Due to the poor performances of our government-be it in the field of political governance, education, industry, etc., it becomes very important to resort to privatization of these institutions and systems. An example to support would be privatization of many companies producing consumer goods. People had to queue, sometimes for days, to get cement, rice, sugar, milk, etc. Now it’s readily available and at times maybe cheaper where competition prevails. Many of the improvements we take for granted now are the result of privatization.
In a set up or environment with a strong tradition of socialism and bureaucracy, the government's privatization program has always had its impediments. Generally, the government adopts, if it does, a very complicated privatization policy. They then use complicated procedure for selecting the owner, impose conditions on the management of the company, sell only part of the company to retain partial control or to intervene in management, restrict or prohibit foreign investment, sell the company shares to small domestic investors who have little ability to manage and so on. Special interest groups such as wealthy businessmen and ruling politicians usually pressure the government to keep the undertakings running that ought to be liquidated. Thus a large share of the State’s productive assets and work force remains locked up in inefficient and unprofitable companies. The reviving and awakening of the governmental units and institutions to the modern practices and modus operandi seems difficult or impossible. Efforts to improve the functioning of these institutions by the government may not be effective for many years. The point that even the private organizations in this State are not very well established or performing is genuine. But the blame can be placed mostly on the political governance- laws, policies, and institutions created by governments. What is needed is a change in the administration and management of the sick and bad-performing units. The reins should be handed over to the private organizations or individuals with competent and ethical management skills. A fresh approach is required- enterprise restructuring, privatization, and liquidation of non-performing and sick units or even commercialization for a start. What is important is that they should deal with competition and quality issues. The non-performing or sick companies can either be restructured or commercialized. However, at times selling organizational assets can be a better decision and hence liquidation can be resorted to. The best way to improve the performance of private business is to eliminate government barriers to competition like tariffs, licensing, legalities, and other restrictions. With the initiative to start up privatization in all government sectors, it will start a drive towards quality, competitiveness and high standards.

6 comments:

sriram siddhartha potluri said...

Are these excerpts?? my god!! how big the actual journal is?!!It would have been convienet for us if u had put them in concise points....

ritesh said...

I too support privatization, but i disagree with the few points made by Naira Yakoob.
The problem with our present system is more, in the way government works rather than governance. A good example is railway system which without being made privatized showed good result.
The author said, to improve privatization we need to remove government regulatory bodies, we shouldn't forget that India is a country whose max. population are below lower middle class and if there is no regulatory body it may be very difficult for those people to survive.
We need to privatized but with some regulatory bodies to have a control over them.

vikas said...

Even I disagree with the conclusion of the article which says that best way to improve the performance of private business is to eliminate any govt. controls and let competition take over.Competition may not be possible in all of the private businesses which involve huge initial capital costs and even if competition is there it may be in the form of oligopoly (as discussed in class today) like in telecom or aviation sector which may lead to collusions and strategies being employed by the groups for increase in prices. We need to a regulatory body which will look after private businesses.

Mash said...

Excellent comments by Ritesh and Vikas. Aditi - any idea on who the author is and what his/her background is?

ACT Insights said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ACT Insights said...

Going in tune with Vikas and Ritesh, I too disagree with the fact that Govt. controls should be eliminated. If privatization is introduced, there has to be a regulatory authority to keep a check on the private player. Also if innovation and better management can be introduced by the Government itself, privatization wouldn't be necessary. As Ritesh quoted above about the railways, credit should be given to Railway Minister 'Laloo Prasad Yadav' for attempts of bringing innovations like free upgradation of tickets etc., hence providing better service, increase of profits and eliminating the need of privatization for railways.