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Disputed Balco sell-off goes to a vote

The government braced for a vote in parliament on Thursday over its plan to sell a controlling stake in Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (Balco), the first big-ticket privatisation in a decade of reform.

A spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the federal coalition, said the government decided to "take the bull by the horns" by agreeing to a vote on the sale of Balco to Bombay-based copper and aluminium maker Sterlite Industries.

"Once and for all we will prove our majority," spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

He said a debate on Balco had been scheduled for Thursday under rule 184 of the Lok Sabha under which deputies can force a vote.

The government last month cleared the sale of 51 per cent of Balco for Rs 5.51 billion ($118 million) to Sterlite.

The government has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, but at least two regional partners of the ruling coalition have criticised the sale of the cash-rich company.

Opposition groups, led by the weighty Congress party, brought parliament proceedings to a standstill last week, demanding the Balco sale be scrapped.

Opposition deputies charged the firm, which produces about 15 per cent of India's aluminium output, was being sold too cheaply.

In the face of uproar over the deal, the government announced on Monday it would delay the transfer of BALCO shares to Sterlite to give parliament time to discuss the deal.

Technically, the government is not bound to seek a parliamentary vote for executive decisions such as the sale of individual firms.

"To put every decision of the cabinet to vote is not a good practice," said Malhotra. "It's all politics. The Congress wants to fish in troubled waters."

Undaunted by opponents of reform, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said in his budget speech on Wednesday the privatisation of state-firms would be accelerated.

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