Shortfalls, again

Union Budget must stop relying on disinvestment proceeds

In recent years, the government’s disinvestment targets in the Union Budget have shown considerably greater ambition than they did earlier. In the Union Budget for 2020-21, the amount due to be raised from disinvestment receipts was an enormous Rs 2.1 trillion. In the Budget for the ongoing fiscal year, the target was only mildly less ambitious, at Rs 1.75 trillion. Yet the disinvestment programme’s failures, in revenue terms, have kept pace with this ambition. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the target was missed by almost Rs 1.8 trillion. And it looks very much like there will be an analogously large