The sluggish market situation notwithstanding, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday clarified to ministry officials he wouldn’t accept any slippage in the government’s Budget disinvestment target of Rs 30,000 crore for this financial year.

In a meeting on the possibility of exploring the exchange-traded funds route for disinvestment, attended by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram, Disinvestment Secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan and other officials concerned, Chidambaram reviewed the road map prepared by the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) for 2012-13.

A senior ministry official who attended the meeting said the finance minister was emphatic. “The target has to be achieved,” Chidambaram said. The official added the finance minister also reviewed the situation in companies that were in the pipeline for disinvestment this year.

So far this financial year, the government has failed to open the disinvestment account. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam’s initial public offering (IPO) has already been put off twice. DoD now expects the disinvestment process would kick off from September, and it has a list of companies in the pipeline. In July, the Cabinet had cleared disinvestment in SAIL. About half a dozen other companies, including BHEL, NMDC and OIL, are in the government’s list.

Besides IPOs and follow-on public offerings, the government is also exploring the possibility of a second round of disinvestment in ONGC, this time through the auction route. In March, the government had sold stake in ONGC.

The exchange-traded funds route is also being considered. This would allow the government to pool shares of companies in which it wants to sell stake, to create a fund. This would then be divided into smaller units, which would be listed on stock exchanges. This route would ensure greater retail participation and check volatility in the shares of public sector undertakings.

The ministry official said at today’s meeting, no decision was taken on any particular mode for disinvestment. He added DoD would try to ensure the disinvestment target would be met in the remaining period of this financial year.

The disinvestment target for the previous financial year was Rs 40,000 crore. To make it more realistic and achievable, it was cut to Rs 30,000 crore for this financial year.

Source: Business Standard

Similar Posts:

• Oil India IPO by September; no disinvestment in ONGC, IOC
• Govt to disinvest 5-10 PSUs in FY10
• Govt identifies 3 PSUs for disinvestment
• Govt mulls stake sale along with IPO in SAIL
• 25% shares in all listed companies to be public owned: Govt