26 PSUs chosen for divestment
Govt awaits opportune time to enter market
It is official now. The government has revealed that
26 public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been chosen for privatisation as of now. Out of the shortlisted PSUs, 23 have received the Cabinet approval recently. The move is part of the government’s efforts to meet its ambitious Rs 2.1lakh crore divestment target for the current fiscal.
Responding a right to information (RTI) query sought by Chandigarhbased activist Aman Sethi, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam), under the Ministry of Finance, on August 24 said, “There are
26 public sector undertakings in the list as on the date so far in which the Government of India is pursuing strategic divestment.”
The activist raised two more specific queries; about the percentage of shares the government plans to divest; and if Uco Bank is also included in the sell-off list. The Dipam responded that the percentage of shares would be decided according to the market conditions and that no information was available with the department about the Uco Bank issue.
Sensing heightened risk to revenue from the economic slowdown and the evolving pandemic conditions, the government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 2.10 lakh crore for the
2020-21 fiscal. Of this, Rs
1.20 lakh crore is to come from disinvestment of public sector undertakings and another Rs 90,000 crore from stake sale in other financial institutions.
In July, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced privatisation of about 23 public sector companies, which had already received cabinet approval. Elaborating about disinvestment plans, the minister had said the government wanted to sell stake in public sector companies when it would fetch the right price.
“There are already nearly 22-23 such PSUs which have been cleared by the Cabinet for disinvestment. The intent is clear that at least for those which had already been cleared by the Cabinet, we will have to disinvest,” the finance minister had said.