Finance Ministry to stick to divestment

New Delhi, January 29

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The Finance Ministry will move ahead with the already announced and planned privatisation of state-owned companies in the next fiscal, and the chances of the new addition to that list of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in the Budget for 2023-24 is unlikely, sources said.

The disinvestment target outlined in the Budget for the next fiscal is likely to be a scaled-down and realistic one, as the budgeted PSU sell-off target is going to be missed for the fourth year in a row this fiscal.

In the current fiscal, the government had budgeted to collect Rs 65,000 crore from disinvestment. However, so far, it has realised only Rs 31,106 crore by selling minority stakes in public sector companies. After tasting success in privatising loss-making Air India in 2021, the progress of PSU sell-off has not been very impressive over the past year, and experts say with the General Election around the corner in 2024, no major disinvestment announcement is expected in this Budget either. The government will go ahead with the privatisation of companies like Shipping Corporation of India, NMDC Steel Ltd, BEML, HLL Lifecare, Container Corporation of India and RINL, etc.