Mukherjee sticks to Rs40,000-crore PSU stake sale target

The government will stick to the disinvestment target of Rs40,000 crore for the 2011-12 financial year, although there is no certainty of achieving that goal considering the current market volatility and the global economic scenario, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.

Mukherjee's assertion comes after the government raising a mere Rs1,145 crore through disinvestment, against the target of Rs40,000 crore, as the financial year entered its eighth month in November.

The government could raise Rs1,145 crore through stake sale in Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

"I am not revising it right now. We have fixed the target and we will try to achieve it, but it depends on many other situations, particularly the economic health conditions," Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a seminar on PSU divestment in New Delhi today.
    
With equity markets in a tizzy, both at home and abroad, fears of a downslide over the spiralling debt crisis in the euro zone and a credit crunch in the US, Mukherjee said, the government is waiting for an opportune time for the divestment process to begin.
    
"All these aspects have to be taken into account and the government will take a decision at the appropriate time," Mukherjee said.
    
With the market in full health at the beginning of the fiscal, the government was hoping to trim its stake in some of the major PSUS like the Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Hindustan Copper (HCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) Rashtriya Inpat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) among other companies.

SAIL and HCL were to sell additional stock as part of the divestment process, but has deferred plans for fresh equity issue.

Mukherjee said with the government continuing to hold 51 per cent in the PSUs, there need not be any apprehension that disinvestment would shift management control into private hands and the PSUs lose their public sector character.