Govt removes criteria for CPSEs to improve share price over sectoral index

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Centre has withdrawn the criteria asking listed central public sector undertakings (CPSEs) to increase their share price over the BSE
Sectoral Index. In the revised memorandum of understanding (MoU) guidelines for 2022-23 (FY23) released on Thursday, the Department of
Public Enterprises has instead sought to benchmark CPSEs, based on the performance of the top/bottom 25 companies on the S-P BSE 500 Index
in order of market capitalisation (m-cap). Business Standard had reported on September 26 quoting anonymous CPSE officials who said that
the target to improve share price could tantamount to stock price manipulation and was aimed at helping the government in amassing high
includes parameters like appreciation in stock value, dividends paid, redemption of bonus preference shares, dividend on bonus preference
shares, redemption of bonus debentures, and interest on bonus debentures
said daily improvement/decline in share price will be added for all trading days in the financial year to arrive at annual achievement by
CPSEs for this parameter. Citing an example, the earlier MoU had said if improvement in m-cap of a CPSE (over previous day) is 5 per cent
(5-4) over the index for that day and vice versa
Among other key criteria, the MoU has now assigned 2 marks out of 100 for procurement from the Government eMarketplace (GeM) portal as
percentage of total procurement
Earlier, the failure to procure from GeM portal had a negative marking (minus 2)
This holds importance as the government aims for 100 per cent procurement through GeM portal by the end of the current financial year. The
earlier provision of rewarding CPSEs with 3 marks for completing 90 per cent of their capital expenditure by the end of the third quarter of
the financial year has been done away with
The revised MoU has also decreased marks allocated to achieving export and import targets from 5 to 4 marks each
The revised MoU assigns 5 marks for acceptance or rejection of goods and services by CPSEs through the Trade Receivables Discounting System
(TReDS) portal within a stipulated time
TReDS is an institutional mechanism set up to facilitate the discounting of invoices for MSMEs from corporate buyers through multiple
financiers
parameter is for CPSEs to ensure that after delivery of goods or rendering of services, the decision on acceptance/rejection of goods and
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman admitted that the central departments and state-owned enterprises are not making payments to MSMEs on time.