The Union government is said to be in the process of expediting the merger of two crucial departments, the Department of Investment & Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), into one under the Ministry of Finance.
The idea of merger was conceived to bring synergy between the two departments as 80 per cent of the works undertaken by them are similar in nature or related to each other. So, the need to eliminate duplication and streamline operation necessitated merger.
Both these departments deal with matters related to Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) and play a pivotal role in equity management, including investment and disinvestment. It should be understood that, apart from the management and regulation of CPSEs, DIPAM initiates the process of disinvestment while DPE settles the closure of business entities and hence merger of the two departments is believed to greatly enhance the performance of the CPSUs.
The basic idea behind this proposed merger is to streamline operation of the CPSUs so that the larger goal of economic reforms could be achieved by facilitating investments and job creation.
The merger plan is not new. It has been high on the agenda of the Narendra Modi government and even figured in the list of “hundred days programme” prepared by the BJP government at the Centre in the anticipation of victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
