Though the Government is yet to take a final call on the subsidy sharing formula for the current fiscal, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday claimed that the Centre will sell a stake in state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) before March 31, 2015. Government was to sell 5 per cent of its stake in the country's biggest oil and gas producer ONGC to raise Rs17,000-18,000 crore.
But the double impact of tumbling global oil prices and the rising subsidy burden has left the ONGC stock battered. Its share has slipped from Rs472 in June last year to Rs352.90 (at 1215 hrs on Wednesday). At current price, the Government will get about Rs15,000 crore. "We will factor in market conditions before disinvestment," Pradhan told reporters on the sidelines of the India Energy Congress .