Govt garners Rs 12,701 cr from disinvestment in FY16 so far

Government has raised Rs 12,701 crore from stake sale in PSUs in this fiscal so far and has lined up state-run firms in sectors such as defence, oil and power for disinvestment to garner more capital, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
Government sold part of its stake in REC, PFC, Dredging Corp of India and Indian Oil Corp to raise a total of Rs 12,701.33 crore this year so far, Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha today.
"The government has identified some CPSEs for disinvestment during the year in sectors, which includes defence, fertiliser, heavy engineering, minerals and metals, oil, power, steel, technical consultancy, tourism, transport services, trading and marketing," the Minister said.

He was replying to a question on funds collected via stake sale in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs)/Public Sector Units (PSUs)/banks.
In the budget, Jaitley set an ambitious target to raise Rs 69,500 crore through divestment in 2015-16.
The government raised Rs 24,348.71 crore in 2014-15 by selling its stake in public companies; Rs 15,819.46 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 23,956.81 crore in 2012-13, he informed.

In reply to a separate question, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said government proposes to disinvest 10 per cent equity of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) out of its holding of 100 per cent through a public offering in domestic market.

However, government has taken employees' unions into confidence to sell its stake in the company, he said.
"Employees unions have expressed their reservation to disinvestment through the Initial Public Offer (IPO). Employees have been taken into confidence by RINL which has conducted several awareness programmes including a series of presentations to the representatives of trade unions and executives at different levels," Sinha said.