The government may have a paltry disinvestment target of Rs 1,120 crore (Rs 11.2 billion), but it has committed to pumping in Rs 25,546 crore (Rs 255.46 billion) as equity in public sector entities during the current financial year.
Indian Railways and the National Highways Authority of India alone would account for over 90 per cent of the total equity investment by the Centre. The government would pump in Rs 14,600 crore (Rs 146 billion) in the Railways to part-finance the Plan investment of Rs 39,545 crore (Rs 395.45 billion).
More than half of the investment of Rs 13,646 crore (Rs 136.46 billion) for NHAI would also come from the government equity at Rs 8,578 crore (Rs 85.78 billion).
The metro rail projects in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai would also get close to Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) for part-financing the estimated investment of around Rs 3,750 crore (Rs 37.5 billion).
Other beneficiaries would include National Minorities Development and Finance Corp, whose entire Plan outlay of Rs 125 crore (Rs 1.25 billion) for the year would come through this route.
On the other hand, the government is targeting to mop up close to Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) by way of dividend from PSUs, PSEs and other investments as also RBI, national banks and financial institutions.
Last year, the slowdown appears to have impacted the government-owned entities also as dividend from this segment at Rs 39,736 crore (Rs 397.36 billion) was about Rs 4,000 crore (40 billion) less than what was targeted in the Budget for 2008-09.
The target for PSUs itself has been lowered from Rs 24,758 crore (Rs 247.58 billion) last year (Budget) to Rs 21,150 crore (Rs 211.5 billion). The dividend and surplus from RBI and nationalised banks, on the other hand, are pegged higher by over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) at Rs 28,600 crore (Rs 286 billion) for the current fiscal.
The PSUs as a block as such are the single largest contributor to the government kitty in terms of both tax and non-tax revenues, besides accounting for most of the government's plan investments.
Besides equity, the government would give just over Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) as loans which is substantially lower than Rs 4,655 crore (Rs 46.55 billion) given last year.
The government gave about Rs 19,000 crore (Rs 190 billion) as equity to PSUs in 2008-09 and most of it was generally accounted for by the railways, metro rail and NHAI projects.
On the other hand, the PSUs have been asked to substantially increase their Plan investments to about Rs 237,000 crore (Rs 2,370 billion), compared to Rs 207,502 crore (Rs 2,075.02 billion) last year.
To support this, the PSUs would have to generate over Rs 208,000 crore (Rs 2,080 billion) by way of internal resources, bonds and debentures and other sources. The resource mobilisation last year was just about Rs 184,000 crore (Rs 1,840 billion).
