Govt has drawn list of PSUs for strategic sale: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government has drawn a list of state-owned companies which will be put on block for strategic sale.

"A list has been drawn," he said in response to a question on the Budget proposal on strategic disinvestment of some state-owned companies as part of government's stake sale programme for 2015-16.

Talking about disinvestment in 2014-15, he said: "Even though in the current year, the year which is coming to an end, we have not able to reach the final target I have set, in terms of numbers, this is the highest ever disinvestment which has taken place in any year."

As regards the next fiscal, he said government has fixed a "large target" for disinvestment. "I plan of stepping it up in the next year.

There are large number of companies we have. I mentioned the word strategic disinvestment, see it has a broad meaning," Jaitley said at an event here.

The government has raised about Rs 24,500 crore through disinvestment in SAIL and Coal India in the current fiscal. As per the revised estimates for the current fiscal, disinvestment proceeds are projected at Rs 31,350 crore (Rs 313.50 billion), lower than Rs 58,425 crore (Rs 584.25 billion) budgeted earlier.

For the next fiscal, Jaitley has proposed raising Rs 69,500 crore from disinvestment and strategic sale in state-owned companies.

As per the Budget 2015-16, Rs 41,000 crore is estimated to come from minority stake sale in PSUs, and the remaining Rs 28,500 crore (Rs 285 billion) is projected to come from strategic sale. The disinvestment department has lined up a host of companies including 5 per cent in ONGC, Dredging Corp, and Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL).

Besides, 10 per cent each in Indian Oil Corporation, National Aluminium Company (NALCO) and NMDC are also being planned.

It is also planning to list RINL and Hindustan Aeronautics through a 10 per cent stake dilution. Referring to the twin deficits, Jaitley said fiscal deficit would remain within the target while current account deficit (CAD) would be less than one per cent of GDP in 2015-16. He also said foreign exchange reserves were high and inflation was under control.

To a question on the new methodology of GDP calculation, Jaitley said Central Statistics Office (CSO) is a reputed organisation and it works at "arms length" from the government.

He said even the Prime Minister or Finance Minister comes to know about the GDP numbers only after CSO releases it.