New Delhi: The Government on Wednesday refuted the Left parties allegations that it was 'favouring Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital' as provident fund manager and categorically stated the decision was not taken "on the spur of the moment".
Union Minister of Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes said, "This is a very old decision. This has been going on ever since I came (as a minister), that prudent investment has to take place, timely investment has to take place. That's why we had to appoint a consultant. The issue came up in the last meeting as well but no decision was taken at that time. Hence a special meeting was called to take the decision (to appoint the consultant)."
The CPM had alleged that the UPA Government had favoured Anil Ambani in lieu of the 'support it got to win the trust vote last week'.
"The reported late selection of Reliance Capital as one of the fund managers is an indication of the cost of support to this tainted government," CPM's Politburo had said while questioning the rationale for handing over crores of rupees of workers' funds to corporates for speculation in stock markets.
The Government had announced on Tuesday an inclusion of three players - ICICI Prudential, HSBC and Reliance Capital - to break the over 50-year-long monopoly of State Bank of India even though Central Board of Trustees had not shortlisted the Anil Ambani group firm for the purpose.
"While the companies can make profits, there is no guarantee of minimum returns to the workers. Thus the savings of workers over years of hard work can be wiped out through speculation," CPM, which withdrew support to the UPA early this month, said in a statement.
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