Govt's stake sale programme 'challenging': Jayant Sinha

Media reports say divestment departments wants to halve divestment target

The government's plan to cut its stake in state-run companies is "challenging" as many of the companies are in the commodities sector where valuations have been hit by a downturn, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Tuesday.

"Whether it is Coal India or whether it is the oil marketing companies, they obviously are impacted by the global prices. So we have to take that into consideration when we consider when and to what extent we'll take them into the market," Sinha said at an industry event.

Media reports have said the government's divestment department wants to more than halve its divestment target for the current financial year to March to about Rs 30,000 crore ($4.6 billion).

($1 = 64.9650 Indian rupees)