The government on Wednesday ruled out in the Rajya Sabha divestment of the National Thermal Power Corporation.

Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, Power Minister Anant Geete said there was no proposal to  divest NTPC.

"The condition of NTPC is good and there is no proposal for its privatisation," he said.

Geete said in order to meet fund requirements for its capacity addition programme, NTPC was contemplating a proposal to augment its share capital base by way of initial public offering.

To another question, he said the Power Finance Corporation has agreed to sanction about Rs 10,500 crore (Rs 105 billion) of loan for power sector during the current financial year, which was Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) more than the target for 2002-03.

Textile: A large number of powerloom units in the country went on strike to protest proposed changes announced in the 2003-04 Union Budget which sought to reduce excise duty, Textiles Minister Kashiram Rana said in a written reply.

He said the government has taken a number of steps to end the strike in the powerloom industry due to which many clusters were coming back to normal.