Govt to sell PSU stakes when market conditions improve: FM

Govt has budgeted to raise Rs 69,500 crore through disinvestment in 2015-16

Government will sell stake in some state-owned companies, especially those in metals business, only when market conditions improve, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said amid concerns that the Rs 69,500 crore disinvestment target for the current fiscal may be missed.

"I have already said there are few stocks, especially metal stocks, which are down globally. Therefore, in such circumstances it would not be appropriate to sells such stocks in the market," he said after a meeting with the heads of public sector banks here.

"We will sell such stocks after market condition improves," he said.

The government has budgeted to raise Rs 69,500 crore through disinvestment in 2015-16. Of this, Rs 41,000 crore is to come from minority stake sale in PSUs and the remaining Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale.

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

Government has a pipeline of over 20 PSUs for offloading part stake during the current fiscal for which it already has the Cabinet approval. They include, 10% stake sale each in OIL, Nalco, NMDC, and 5% each in NTPC, ONGC, BHEL. Besides, plans are afloat for 10% stake sale in Coal India Ltd.

However, volatile market conditions have dented the prospects of a stake sale, with the recent disinvestments of IOC and PFC facing rough weathers.

Although the government has missed its divestment target for five years in a row, the target for the current fiscal, 2015-16, was set at a massive Rs 69,500 crore -- 180% higher than the total amount garnered from PSU share sales in the previous fiscal.