The Government wants cash-rich PSUs like Coal India, Oil India and NTPC to take a cue from the private sector and use surplus cash to buy back shares and improve balance sheets. "Major private sector companies have a treasury wing to make use of their cash balance more effectively. PSUs have so far not been able to manage their cash balance efficiently. DIPAM will endeavour to help PSUs to use their cash balance for resource augmentation," an official said. As many as eight private sector companies, including Bharti Infratel, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Dr Reddy's and OnMobile Global, in 2016 have announced buyback plans totalling about Rs 7,700 crore. "Private companies have been using buyback as a strategy of investment management. They assess ways to increase resources and at the same time how best to maximise returns to equity shareholders," the official added. With public sector companies sitting on an estimated cash pile of Rs 2.6 lakh crore, leveraging surplus cash would be the best option for them rather than going for disinvestment. At the end of March 2015, NMDC had a cash and bank balance of Rs. 18,443 crore, Coal India had Rs. 53,093 crore, NTPC (Rs 13,000 crore), Nalco (Rs 4,628 crore) and MOIL (Rs 2,830 crore). Latest cash balance with OIL is Rs. 9,000 crore.