Govt to meet Rs 54,000 crore disinvestment target: Mayaram

Govt has set a target of Rs 40,000 cr for its stake sale in PSUs and Rs 14,000 cr from selling its shares in pvt firms

Notwithstanding volatility in the market, the government today said it is confident of meeting the Rs 54,000 crore disinvestment target for 2013-14.

The government has set a target of Rs 40,000 crore for its stake sale in public sector units (PSUs) and Rs 14,000 crore from selling its shares in private companies.

"We have two kinds of disinvestment. One is disinvestment of government shares in PSUs and other is disinvestment of government shares in private companies.

"We believe that we will be able to meet that target of Rs 54,000 crore. It could be a little higher in the one or little lesser in the other," Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters.

Since July, domestic stock markets have been volatile with BSE benchmark Sensex touching lows of 17,905 in August. However, it recovered to touch 3-year high levels of 20,646 last week, only to lose momentum after the RBI unexpectedly hiked repo rate.

So far this fiscal, the government has raised only Rs 1,325 crore by divesting stake in entities Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), State Trading Corporation (STC), MMTC, and ITDC, all public sector undertakings.

Referring to the sale of government's remaining stake in Hindustan Zinc and BALCO, Mayaram said: "As far as our understanding goes there is no legal impediment in divestment of Hindustan Zinc and BALCO."

The government, which currently holds 29.5% stake in HZL and 49% stake in BALCO, is looking at exiting from the two firms in which Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group holds majority stake.

The government had sold controlling stake in these companies between 2001-2003.

While the Finance Ministry is of the view that the residual stake in the two companies be auctioned, the Mines Ministry wanted to use 'put and call' option for the stake sale, according to sources.

In the last fiscal (2012-13), the government has raised Rs 23,920 crore through disinvestment.

The disinvestment proceeds are of great importance to the government which aims to keep the fiscal at 4.8% of the GDP in the current fiscal.