The Government has already garnered Rs23,500 crore by divesting its stakes in PSUs so far in the current fiscal and is hopeful of achieving the FY17 disinvestment target of Rs56,500 crore, a Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday.
“We have already completed disinvestment valued at Rs23,500 crore so far in the current fiscal. Thus we are confident of completing the projected disinvestment target of Rs56,500 crore for the entire fiscal during the two-and-a- half months left before us,” Manish Singh, Joint Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under Ministry of Finance, said. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event here. According to Singh, buyback of shares undertaken for the first time by central public sector enterprises has fetched Rs15,000 crore so far in the current fiscal. “At a time when the market was not supportive and no new foreign investor was there to buy, buyback was one of the best available options before the Government for disinvestment,” he said.
“We have done minority stake sale and buyback this time. We have a strong pipeline of 40-odd listed companies. Still, it will all depend on how does the market behave. I mean if the market supports us and gives windows to divest, we will go ahead with disinvestment task assigned to us.”