Highest divestment proceeds this fiscal: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that though the government may not have achieved its disinvestment target with the last few days of the fiscal remaining, the amount realised this year has been the highest.

"Even though in the current year that is coming to an end, we may not have reached the (disinvestment) target I had set, in terms of numbers, this is the highest ever disinvestment that has taken place in any year, and so I intend to step it up next year," Jaitley said addressing the Growth Net 2015 Conference here organised in partnership with the external affairs ministry.

For the current fiscal, the disinvestment proceeds are projected at Rs.31,350 crore. The government has raised about Rs.24,500 crore through disinvestment in Steel Authority of India and Coal India.

For 2015-16 fiscal beginning April, the government has budgeted to collect Rs.69,500 crore through public sector disinvestment.

This includes Rs.41,000 crore to be garnered through minority stake sale and another Rs.28,500 crore through strategic sale in both loss and profit making PSUs.

Asked to clarify on "strategic sale", Jaitley said that it means transferring the management control.

"Completely loss-making companies that cannot be revived, can I say I want to divest, but I want to keep control and the taxpayer will fund it?" he asked.

The government has earlier clarified that strategic sale does not include residual sale of government equity in non-government firms.