Disinvestment shortfall not to upset fiscal deficit target, says FM Arun Jaitley

Terming disinvestment target as challenging, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said lower receipts will not upset the fiscal maths and there will be no difficulty in meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent set for the current financial year.

"I don't think there are any concerns (on fiscal deficit) ... I had consciously kept a very modest fiscal deficit target that is the movement from 4.1 per cent which eventually became 4 per cent to 3.9 per cent (in 2015-16). The manner in which tax revenues and expenditure are moving, I don't see there's going to be any difficulty," he said.

Admitting that disinvestment is a challenge mainly on account of global problems, Jaitley said the "metal stocks are not doing particularly well, and metal was a large part of kitty that we had planned for this year. I don't think it makes sense divesting at a time when prices are low".

Government had budgeted to raise Rs 69,500 crore through disinvestment in the current fiscal. Of this, Rs 41,000 crore was to come from minority stake sale in PSUs and another Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale.

With seven months of the current fiscal about to be over, the government has been able to sell sell stake only in four companies -- PFC, REC, Dredging Corp and IOC -- to net Rs 12,600 crore.

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha too said that disinvestment process is challenging because of global commodities slowdown and many identified PSUs are from this space.

"Whether it is Coal India or OMCs (Oil Marketing Companies) and so on. They are impacted by global commodity prices," Sinha said at an event in Mumbai.

"I don't think it makes sense divesting at a time when prices are low," Jaitley said.