BackPSU disinvestments to touch Rs45,000 crore in FY17: Arun Jaitley
About Rs30,000 crore have been raised so far in the current fiscal through minority share sale by way of OFS, share buyback and CPSE ETF
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New Delhi: With less than two months to go for the current financial year to come to a close, finance minister Arun Jaitley has exuded confidence that receipts from PSU (public sector undertakings) disinvestment will touch Rs45,000 crore in 2016-17.
About Rs30,000 crore have been raised so far in the current fiscal through minority share sale by way of OFS, share buyback and CPSE ETF.
“It’s true this government does not make a song and dance about disinvestment. I fix a target in every Budget...this year, I am going to touch ₹ 45,000 crore in one year," he said at a panel discussion on TV channel Times Now.
Referring to his budget speech, Jaitley said that he had announced listing of a large number of PSUs on the stock exchanges. “So, PSUs which are not listed, will now be going into the stock exchange...(and) once they go into stock exchange again will necessarily entail disinvestment of each one of them, and some of them are huge," the finance minister said.
In his budget speech on 1 February, the finance minister had also said that the government will put in place a revised mechanism and procedure to ensure time-bound listing of identified CPSEs as listing will foster greater public accountability and unlock their true value.
The government aims to raise Rs72,500 crore through disinvestment of PSUs, including listing of three railway PSUs—IRCTC, IRFC and IRCON—during 2017-18.
Besides, the government also plans to sell its stake in five PSU general insurance companies which is expected to fetch about Rs11,000 core. Fiscal 2016-17 is the seventh year in a row when the government would not be meeting the disinvestment target fixed in the budget. As much as Rs56,500 crore was budgeted to be raised through PSU disinvestment in the current fiscal.
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