Govt prunes disinvestment target to Rs 4000 crore

Giving a go-by to privatisation, Govt declared selective disinvestment in profit-making PSEs to raise Rs 4,000 cr this fiscal.

Giving a virtual go-by to privatisation, the Government on Thursday declared selective disinvestment in profit-making PSEs to raise just Rs 4,000 crore during the current fiscal, down from Rs 14,500 crore realised during 2003-04 by the previous NDA Government.

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"Disinvestment and privatisation are useful economic tools. We will selectively employ these tools, consistent with the declared policy," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in his budget speech.

He announced the setting up of a Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE), which would advice the Government on the matter of sick PSEs as well as its disinvestment programme. "The board will advice the Government on the measures to be taken to restructure PSEs, including cases where disinvestment or closure or sale is justified," Chidambaram said.

On the privatisation for this year, the Finance Minister said the Government was looking at meeting targets through the sale of its equity in NTPC, which has already filed a prospectus with SEBI.

"In order to extract value for its holding and to compensate the effect of dilution, Government intends to piggy-back on the public issue of NTPC and disinvest approximately five per cent of its holding.

"This and other cases which are under examination are expected to yield a sum of Rs 4,000 crore in the current year," Chidambaram said.