'Govt will be happy if disinvestment fetches Rs 10,000cr'

The government will be happy if it manages to raise around Rs 10,000 crore from disinvestment this fiscal as against Rs 40,000 crore target set for 2013-14, a senior official said here today.
"With Indian Oil and Coal India disinvestment not happening, we will be glad if we get somewhere around Rs 10,000 crore through disinvestment this fiscal, which also includes Rs 2,500 crore of exchange-traded funds to be floated in some PSU shares," Sangita Choure, a Joint Secretary in the Disinvestment Department, said.
The government has got close to Rs 20,000 crore from Coal India and its subsidiaries as special dividend after the divestment plan was derailed by unions.

The Empowered Group of Ministers last month had approved selling 10 per cent government stake in Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to ONGC and OIL to rake in Rs 4,800-5,000 crore.
In the Budget 2013-14, the Finance Ministry had estimated that government could garner Rs 29,870 crore as dividend from PSUs and over Rs 40,000 crore from divestment and residual stake sale in Balco and Hindustan Zinc Hindustan Zinc.
The government is also expecting dividend of around Rs 20,000 crore from state-run banks and other PSUs, Choure told reporters on the sidelines of EIL FPO conference here.

Although the government had budgeted Rs 40,000 crore by disinvestment, it has so far managed to garner only Rs 3,000 crore from stake sales in seven PSUs, including PowerGrid, Hindustan Copper, National Fertilisers and MMTC.

The government is running out of time to meet the target as only less than two months left for the close of the fiscal.
The scheduled 10 per cent stake sale in Engineers India (EIL) is expected to yield Rs 500 crore.
The government has also cleared stake sale in Hindustan Zinc. Its schedule is not yet finalised, Choure said.
IndianOil stake sale was deferred last month because of objections from oil ministry over the pricing of the issue. The sale of 10 per cent stake could have fetched around Rs 4,800 crore.