Taking a critical view of the country's divestment process, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction on the progress made on the divestment front and said there had been no significant improvement in operational efficiencies of the units.

"The Indian experience suggests that the targets of divestment have often not been met," Pant said inaugurating a conference on 'Privatisation and Corporate Governance of State-owned Assets' in New Delhi.

The Divestment Development: Complete Coverage

"The progress in privatisation has not been quite satisfactory in most of the countries in South Asia, including India," he added.

Pant said the state-owned enterprises were privatised or divested as they suffered from basic problems like soft budget constraints, multiple objectives, absence of incentives and stringent control by multiple authorities resulting in their inefficiency.

"Privatisation too has encountered significant road blocks, making the process slow and painful".