Govt to push all possible stake sales before March

Concerns mount over ability to meet over R60,000 cr target in FY15

The Centre has in previous years too, fallen short of its disinvestment target as shown in the accompanying chart.

With a little more than three months left of the current financial year, concerns have begun mounting over the Centre’s disinvestment line-up and its ability to meet the over Rs 60,000 crore target from stake sales in public sector units.

“The government is trying to push through as many stake sales as possible in the next three months and it is hoping to meet a sizeable chunk if not the full target from disinvestment proceeds,” said a senior government official familiar with the development.

For 2014-15, the Centre has set a target of Rs 63,425 crore from disinvestment in public sector units including stake sales in SUUTI, Hindustan Zinc, Balco, Coal India (CIL), ONGC and NHPC.

Story continues below this ad

“Ideally, we should not have back-to-back issues but that is what we will have to do over the next quarter to maximise gains from stake sales,” he said.

The Centre has in previous years too, fallen short of its disinvestment target as shown in the accompanying chart. But with tax collections registering low growth, proceeds from stake sales are crucial to fund the fiscal deficit of 4.1 per cent in 2014-15.

Officials said while they are trying to expedite stake sales in CIL and ONGC that would take care of most of the disinvestment target and are reviewing the option of another exchange traded fund.

“At the moment, nothing is off the table. Based on our actual realisation from stake sales, we will decide on the exchange traded fund,” said another official.

Story continues below this ad

“In case of CIL, until it gets a full-time chairman and managing director, we cannot go through with the planned 10 per cent stake sale,” he added.

Similarly, the government is yet to provide clarity on the subsidy sharing formula for oil without which bankers are not keen to go ahead with the disinvestment in ONGC.

“The markets are on a high and we hope that the subsidy issue can be resolved soon for the ONGC stake sale,” said a second official.
The planned 5 per cent stake sale in ONGC is expected to fetch at least Rs 16,000 crore. Till now, the Centre has raised just Rs 1,725 crore from the 5 per cent disinvestment in steel maker SAIL.

Sources said that the Centre is also trying to get clarity on the residual stake sales in Hindustan Zinc and Balco that are estimated to raise at least Rs 15,000 crore. “There is also a petition pending with the Supreme Court regarding HZL’s disinvestment on which we have to wait for a decision,” said a third official, adding that the finance ministry is awaiting the valuation report for Balco before it can start the process of selling off residual stake in it.

Story continues below this ad

Experts also believe that the government needs to work fast if it wants to meet the disinvestment target.

“No more disinvestments are likely to take place in 2014. The government has good PSUs lined up including CIL and ONGC but it needs to finalise its roadmap for the next three months soon so that when the investor community comes back in the first week of January, stake sales can restart,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head-research at SMC Global Securities.