Government confident of meeting FY'13 disinvestment target: DEA Secretary

GURGAON: The government is confident of meeting its target of raising Rs 30,000 crore through the sale of its stake in state-owned companies in the current fiscal, an official said today.

However, it is yet to make the first disinvestment of the 2012-13 fiscal, although more than seven months have gone by so far.

"...by the end of this fiscal we should get Rs 30,000 crore. That we are confident of...work has started (towards disinvestment) and issues (of PSUs) will begin to come in a while," Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters at the World Economic Forum on India here.

The statement comes a day after the government deferred 12.5 per cent stake sale in Nalco, saying that the company's second quarter financial performance was not reflective of the true financial position of the aluminium major.

Nalco would have been the first PSU to hit the capital markets in the current fiscal after government postponed the public issue of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) as the Steel Ministry felt that the issue price suggested by merchant bankers was less than the book value.

Mayaram said several steps are required before stake sale and the government was doing the job.

"One company may go (for public issue) in January, the other may go in December, that is another (matter), but disinvestment will happen this fiscal," he added.

The government aims to raise Rs 30,000 crore by way of disinvestment in state-run companies, including, Oil India, MMTC, Hindustan Copper, SAIL and NMDC.

Yesterday, the Finance Ministry said it is planning stake sale of three PSUs -- Hindustan Copper, NMDC and Oil India -- by end December which is likely to fetch Rs 12,000 crore to the exchequer.