Jaitley hints at more divestment in next two months, target of Rs 45,000 crore to be met

With less than two months to gofor the current financial year to end, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley has exuded confidence that receipts fromPSU disinvestment will touch Rs 45,000 crore in 2016-17.

About Rs 30,000 crore have been raised through minorityshare sale by way of OFS, share buyback and CPSE ETF, so farin the current fiscal.

“It’s true this government does not make a song and danceabout disinvestment. I fix a target in every Budget...thisyear, I am going to touch Rs 45,000 crore in one year,” hesaid talking to one of the TV channel.

Referring to his Budget Speech, Jaitley said that he hadannounced listing of a large number of PSUs on the stockexchanges.

“So, PSUs which are not listed, will now be going intothe stock exchange...(and) once they go into stock exchangeagain will necessarily entail disinvestment of each one ofthem, and some of them are huge,” the Finance Minister said.

In his Budget speech on February 1, the Finance Ministerhad also said that the government will put in place a revisedmechanism and procedure to ensure time-bound listing ofidentified CPSEs as listing will foster greater publicaccountability and unlock their true value.

The government aims to raise Rs 72,500 crore throughdisinvestment of PSUs, including listing of three railway PSUs-- IRCTC, IRFC and IRCON—during 2017-18.

Besides, the government also plans to sell its stake infive PSU general insurance companies which is expected tofetch about Rs 11,000 core.

Fiscal 2016-17 is the seventh year in a row when thegovernment would not be meeting the disinvestment target fixedin the Budget. As much as Rs 56,500 crore was budgeted to beraised through PSU disinvestment in the current fiscal.