THE NEWSMAN OF INDIA.COM
NDA belligerent disinvestment drive predict healthy for the economy to stay on the path of fiscal prudence and recovery. Recent cabinet decision to sell the government’s 51.11 % stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) is a winner in a strategic sense and also to rake in cash to fill up government’s coffers. The exercise will fetch anywhere between Rs 26,000 crore and Rs 30,000 crore, according to government estimates.

On the disinvestment front, the NDA has got a good start this fiscal year. It has so far mopped up Rs 3,743 crore through sale of stakes in public sector units (PSUs) like Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL), National Aluminium Company (NALCO), Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco), Oil India Ltd (OIL), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (RCFL) and another Rs 4,153 crore through strategic disinvestment of 2.5 percent stake in Larsen and Toubro (L&T). That makes the figure so far close to Rs 8,000 crore or about 11 percent of the total disinvestment target of Rs 72,500 crore this year. This isn’t a bad figure in the first three months of the fiscal year.

If the HPCL stake sale brings in another Rs 30,000 crore, it will help the government meet the almost 52 percent of the annual disinvestment target, including the ones concluded so far.

The government, however, needs to continue more aggressively. Its holding in companies like HCL and Hudco continues to be above 80 percent, which means there is enough room to exit further at an appropriate time.