Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set a target of raising Rs 1.75 lakh crore from disinvestment in the financial year 2021-22. He said that the government will raise this amount in the next financial year by selling its stake in 2 public sector banks and 1 insurance company. Disclosing the policy of privatization of public sector enterprises (PSEs), the finance minister said that the government would sell its stake in all PSUs except the 4 strategic sectors. Finance Minister said that the process of disinvestment in companies like BPCL, Air India, IDBI, will be completed in 2021-22. He said that NITI Aayog has been asked to make a list of PSUs in which the government will sell its stake.
Let us tell you that the central government had set a target of raising Rs 2.10 lakh crore in the year 2020-21 through disinvestment. But so far the government has not been able to raise even a quarter of its amount through disinvestment. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech that the government received Rs 36,635.49 this year from the disinvestment of PSUs. It received Rs 19,499.07 crore from Disinvestment and Rs 17,136.42 crore from Dividend Receipts. At the same time, disinvestment of minorities stake in various PSEs has raised Rs 16,729.17 crore this financial year. This financial year the government is selling its stake in several big companies including Air India, BPCL, LIC. However, there are many of these companies, whose sales process has not even started.
Government sold minority stake in these companies
The central government has sold its minority stake in several companies. For this, the government has so far this year issued shares of two companies Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDS) and Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) through the offer for sale (OFS) of the remaining companies. Rs 771.46 crore from selling minority stake in BDL to Government, Rs 4,924.23 crore from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Rs 442.79 crore from MDL, Rs 4,473.92 crore from IRCTC, 2,737.56 crore from Steel Authority of India (SAIL), 1,541.37 crore from IRFC and other companies. 1,837.84 crore was received from the sale of Minority Stake in India.