Government hopes for more divestment by December
08 Nov 2012
India's finance ministry today said it is planning to sell some of its stake in three state-run companies - Hindustan Copper Ltd, National Mineral Development Corp (NMDC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) - by the end of December.
The government is expecting to garner Rs12,000 crore from the stake sale, disinvestment secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan told reporters in New Delhi. "HCL (Hindustan Copper) disinvestment will be next, followed by NMDC and OIL. We hope to get Rs12,000 crore through three issues by December end,'' he said.
Khan added that he expects the disinvestment in NTPC will happen in January. "We have scheduled a large number of cases and they are in the pipeline. Things are getting difficult, but not impossible," Khan said.
Seven months of the fiscal year are already over, but the government's divestment programme has not really taken off.
Finance minister P Chidambaram hopes to raise Rs30,000 crore in 2012-13 by divesting some of the government's stake in public sector undertakings (PSUs); but by current indications investors are not too keen on buying minority stakes in India's government-run companies.
Khan however sounded optimistic. "We are confident of meeting the Rs30,000 crore disinvestment target," he said.
