PSU stake sales to be game changer

Though finance minister P Chidambaram did not announce the disinvestment target in his speech,the total estimate of Rs 55,814 crore works out to the highest target from stake sale proceeds in over a decade.

For 2013-14,the department of disinvestment has identified 20 PSUs for stake sales and has initiated consultations with the administrative ministries. These include Coal India,Indian Oil Corporation,Engineers India,Power Grid Corporation,NHPC Ltd and Neepco. Apart from these companies,Cabinet has already approved disinvestment in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd BHEL,RINL Neyveli Lignite Corporation and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

Disinvestment secretary Ravi Mathur said,This is a work-in-progress. We will continue to update the list of firms of stake sales throughout the fiscal.

For the current fiscal,the government had originally set the disinvestment target at Rs 30,000 crore. The revised estimates in the Budget for 2013-14,the government has raised Rs 21,504 crore through stake sale in Oil India Ltd,NTPC Ltd,NMDC and Hindustan Copper.

With one month remaining of the current fiscal,four more companies SAIL,NALCO,MMTC and Rashtriya Chemical and Fertilisers are reported to be in the list of companies up for stake sale by March 31,2013.