Centre gets over Rs 51K cr from divestment

NEW DELHI: The government has mopped up Rs 51,600 crore by divesting its stake in central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and strategic sale of public sector companies since the inception of the disinvestment policy in 1991.

While the offloading of stake in CPSEs fetched the government about Rs 45,255.65 crore, the rest came through strategic sale of public sector companies, according to the white paper on investment presented in Parliament on Friday.

As per the white paper, the government would continue to mop up liquid assets through the offloading of its stake in the CPSEs. However, it has not set up any targets for disinvestment since 2005-06.

The government hopes to realise about Rs 2,881 crore from dilution of its stake in National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), Power Grid Corporation (PGCIL) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC). While the Centre has already offloaded 5% stake in PGCIL piggybacking on its initial public offer (IPO), it is awaiting SEBI nod for the IPOs of NHPC and REC.

During the current financial year, the government also realised Rs 2,366.94 crore from the sale of its residual 10.27% stake in Maruti Udyog (MUL). Fiscal 2003-04 proved to be the most lucrative for the Centre in terms of cash realisation through disinvestment.

The government realised Rs 15,547 crore in 2003-04 from the sale of equity in a host of blue chip CPSEs, including MUL, IPCL, CMC, Hindustan Zinc, GAIL and ONGC.

On the other hand, the government realised a meagre Rs 168.48 crore from disinvestment during 1995-96 against the budgetary target of Rs 7,000 crore.

Referring to the National Investment Fund (NIF), the paper said UTI Asset Management Company, SBI Funds Management and Jeevan Bima Sahayog AMC have been appointed fund managers.