The government will earn Rs 1 lakh crore from stake sales in public sector firms this fiscal and has set a slightly lower target of Rs 80,000 crore from disinvestment proceeds in 2018-19. This was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget on Thursday. The Budget estimate for disinvestment proceeds in 2017-18 was estimated at Rs 72,500 crore.
Announcing big ticket plans for PSU stake sales, Jaitley in the Budget speech said, “Three public sector general insurance companies -- National Insurance Company Ltd, United India Assurance Company Ltd and Oriental India Insurance Company Ltd -- will be merged into a single insurance entity and will be subsequently listed.”
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management will also announce more exchange-traded funds (ETF) in 2018-19, including debt ETF. He also announced that the Centre has approved listing of 14 PSUs, including two insurance companies, on the stock exchanges. It has also initiated the process of strategic disinvestment in 24 CPSEs, including strategic privatisation of Air India.