Centre's divestment roadmap to be ready by Mar '10

Encouraged by the outcome of earlier initiatives, the Centre is preparing a roadmap to take the disinvestment process forward over the next two years.

"We should be ready with an action plan by March 2010 for taking the process of disinvestment forward in the next two years," disinvestment secretary Sunil Mitra said at an interaction with members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Referring to disinvestment in National Hydel Power Corporation and the Oil India Limited, Mitra said while the enterprise value of NHPC rose from Rs 18,280 crore (Rs 182.8 billion) to Rs 37,702 crore (Rs 377.02 billion) after listing, that of Oil India Limited rose from Rs 9,844 crore (Rs 98.44 billion) to Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion).

Mitra, who took charge as disinvestment secretary in July this year, said his department had identified 61 Central PSUs for disinvestment based on their performance in 2007-08. Talks would be held with the administrative ministries of these CPSUs from January to March to work out the disinvestment modalities, he said.

Pointing out that Securities and Exchange Board of India has permitted the corporates to take the auction route to sell shares to insititutional investors, he said, while this would ensure a higher return through follow-on public offers, it would also be possible to offer higher discounts to retail bidders.