Govt confident of meeting Rs 40,000 cr divestment target

Buoyed by the strong response to its PSUs shares sales, the government today exuded confidence that it would meet the disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for the current fiscal.

"Of course, the government will achieve the target of Rs 40,000 crore, which has been provided in the Budget and the evidence is before us," Disinvestment Secretary Sumit Bose told reporters.

He further said that the government had already mopped up around Rs 21,000-22,000 crore in the current fiscal and the public issues of MOIL (formerly known as Manganese Ore India Limited) and Shipping Corporation of India, which open this month, would take the disinvestment amount to over Rs 23,000 crore.

"...Then we have next, issues of ONGC and SAIL lined up, so we will surely achieve what we are supposed to in terms of raising Rs 40,000 crore," he added.

The Centre will dilute 10 per cent stake in the country's largest manganese manufacturer MOIL, while Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments will shed 5 per cent each through the public offer that will open on November 26 and close on December one.

Yesterday, the government fixed a price band of Rs 340-375 a share for raising up to Rs 1,238 crore through initial sale of shares in Manganese Ore India Ltd, which will become the fifth state-run company to face government disinvestment this fiscal.

So far in 2010-11, the government has already diluted its stake in Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, Engineers India, Coal India Ltd and Power Grid Cooperation of India Ltd.  All these public issues were oversubscribed.

 After MOIL, the follow-on public offer of state-owned Shipping Corporation of India is next in line. Its public offer would open on November 30 and close on December 3.

In 2009-10, the government had raised Rs 25,000 crore through stake sale in Oil India, NMDC, REC and NTPC.