Govt proposes to mop up Rs 10,165 crore from disinvestment

NEW DELHI: In line with its decision to list more public sector undertakings, government today proposed to mop up Rs 10,165 crore by selling its stake in profit-making public sector enterprises in 2008-09. For the next fiscal, the government has projected receipt of Rs 1,165 crore through divestment of a small portion of equity in companies including NHPC.

Besides, Rs 9,000 crore is budgeted as receipts from the SUTI (Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India-I), a subsidiary of UTI, in the next fiscal. The disinvestment proceeds would be transferred to National Investment Fund (NIF), the Receipt Budget tabled by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament said. "It is the policy of the government to list more CPSEs in order to unlock their true value and improve corporate governance," Chidambaram said in Parliament.

This fiscal, the government had transferred Rs 1,651 crore to NIF, which was set up to use the return from investment of disinvestment proceeds for social sector projects and partly to meet capital needs of profitable PSUs. In 2007-08, the government received Rs 36,125 crore from disinvestment proceeds comprising Rs 34,308.60 crore as one time transfer by RBI for stake in State Bank of India.

Pointing out that 44 CPSEs have been listed, Chidambaram said the government will provide Rs 16,436 crore as equity support and Rs 3,003 crore as loans to the Central Public Sector Enterprises. The Economic Survey tabled in the Parliament yesterday has also asked the government to list all unlisted public sector enterprises and sell a minimum 10 per cent equity to the public.