THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cabinet on Wednesday gave its blessings for registering the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) as a new company.
The Cabinet also approved the Articles of Association and the Memorandum of Association - which form the constitution of the company, sources said. If things go as planned, the new company `KSEB Ltd’ should come into being in a few months time.
Now the State Government has to move an application with the Registrar of Companies for registering the company. Also, the assets and liabilities of the KSEB vested with the Power Department in September last has to be re-vested with the new corporate entity. According to KSEB sources, this could end up causing delays.
“The name for the new company and the board of directors had been approved earlier. While the registration procedures can be completed within a short period, the re-vesting of the assets and liabilities with the new company can take time," sources said.
On Wednesday, the KSEB had informed the Kerala High Court that the new company will not be formed on April 1 as planned. The assessment of the assets and liabilities are on at present. A January 19, 2009, order had proposed that the “revesting of assets and liabilities of the Board now vested with the Government shall take place on April 1, 2009, and the new company shall start functioning from that date." The GO had also stated that the “cleaning up activities" of the balance sheet had already started by PFC Consulting, New Delhi, the consultant.
The KSEB, on its part, had formed three regional committees for the restructuring process.
THE NAME
For many, ‘KSEB Ltd’ could have come as an anti-climax, considering the fact that the KSEB had conducted a contest to name the new corporate entity. But quite a few contestants had suggested KSEB Ltd. And KSEB officials also felt that the name should be retained since it was engraved in the minds of the public.
“In consideration, the positives far outweighed the negatives," a top KSEB official, who was part of the committee for selecting the winning entry, said.
Corporatisation of KSEB flayed
The Kerala State Electricity Employees Confederation (INTUC) on Thursday alleged that Wednesday’s Cabinet approval for registering KSEB as a corporate entity was a sign of LDF’s continued servility to SNC-Lavalin.
It was SNC-Lavalin which first recommended that the KSEB should be transformed into private entities.
Despite a committee led by Planning Board vice-chairman Prabhat Patnaik reporting the sad plight of power utilities in States that had gone in for corporatisation, the LDF was proceeding with its plan in Kerala as part of an unholy SNCLavaln- Left alliance, Confederation general secretary M.S.Rawther said in a statement.