BackCoal India disinvestment may be taken by cabinet committee this week
The proposed 10% stake sale may fetch the exchequer around Rs22,000
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New Delhi: The government is likely to approve disinvestment of Coal India Ltd this week, which may fetch the exchequer ₹ 22,000 crore.
The proposal for 10% disinvestment of Coal India would be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) this week, people with knowledge of the matter said.
A planned stake sale in Coal India in the last fiscal year had to be deferred after stiff opposition from the trade unions. The coal major had to make up for that by paying about ₹ 19,000 crore as dividend to the exchequer.
The government, which holds a 89.65% stake in Coal India, initially sought to divest a 10% stake but lowered it to 5% on account of opposition from the unions. At Thursday’s closing share price of ₹ 356.40, a sale of 10% stake or 631.6 million shares in Coal India would fetch the government more than ₹ 22,428 crore. This will make up for more than half of the total disinvestment target of the current fiscal.
In the 2014-15 budget, the government had estimated to collect ₹ 43,425 crore from selling stakes in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and another ₹ 15,000 crore from sale of residual stake in the erstwhile government companies.
Of the disinvestment target of ₹ 40,000 crore in 2013-14, the government had mobilized ₹ 15,820 crore. In 2012-13, of the ₹ 30,000 crore target, ₹ 23,957 crore was raised. In 2011-12, only ₹ 13,894 crore was raised of the ₹ 40,000 crore target.
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