The Finance Ministry is confident of meeting the shortfall in the disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore set for the current fiscal.
With the disinvestment receipts till date amounting to only Rs 1,145 crore, economy watchers feel that the Government may miss the target by a large margin unless some alternative steps are pursued in right earnest
Any shortfall in disinvestment target would only further worsen the fiscal deficit situation, weakening investor confidence, they pointed out.
“There are number of ways in which we are trying to meet the shortfall. Those are under various stages of decision making. We in the Budget division feel that it is possible to get that money this year by the kind of means we are pursuing at this point of time,” Mr R. Gopalan, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, told the Delhi Economics Conclave jointly organised by Finance Ministry and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today.
Mr Gopalan was replying to a query on disinvestment and whether the Government would be able to achieve the target set for this fiscal.
He, however, declined to spell out the other options being pursued as the Government was yet to take a final call on them. Speculation is rife in the Capital that the Government may nudge LIC to buy portion of Government stake in certain listed profit making public sector enterprises.
An option of buy-back of Government shareholding by cash rich PSEs like Coal India is also being considered.
“From my side, I am very confident that we will get that money,” Mr Gopalan said.
Plan panel worries
Earlier in the day, the Planning Commission Member, Mr Saumitra Chaudhuri, told reporters on the sidelines of the conclave that it would be difficult to achieve the disinvestment target given the current volatile market conditions.
In its Mid-Year Analysis, 2011-12, tabled in Lok Sabha last week, the Government said that meeting the disinvestment target is a “stiff task.”
The Department of Disinvestment had recently circulated a Cabinet note seeking the views of different ministries on asking certain PSEs under them to explore option of buy-back of shares.
About a dozen cash-rich entities like Coal India, SAIL, NMDC, ONGC and NTPC have been identified for the purpose, they added. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has already approved disinvestments in SAIL, ONGC, Hindustan Copper, BHEL and NBCC.
krsrivats@thehindu.co.in