Govt Raises Rs 1L Cr This Fiscal From PSU Disinvestment, Aims Rs 80,000 Crore In FY19

The government raised Rs 1 lakh crore this financial year from PSU disinvestment and expects to raise a lower Rs 80,000 crore in FY19. 

In the Budget for 2018-19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will move forward to bring in more Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), including launching a debt fund.

Also three insurance companies -- National Insurance, United Assurance and Oriental Insurance will be merged to create a single entity, which would be listed on the bourses, he said.

"We had set a Rs 72,500 crore disinvestment target for 2017-18. We have already exceeded the target and achieved Rs 1 lakh crore....I am setting the disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 crore for 2018-19," Jaitley said.

He said 40 CPSEs and 24 strategic disinvestment, including that of Air India, are on course, while ONGC take over of HPCL has been completed in the current fiscal.

The 2017-18 Budget had set the target of disinvestment in public sector units at Rs 72,500 crore. This included Rs 46,500 crore as disinvestment of CPSEs, Rs 15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment and Rs 11,000 crore from listing of insurance companies.

The government reduced stake in several PSUs this fiscal, including EIL, NTPC, NALCO and OIL. Two state-owned insurance companies, GIC and New India Assurance, as well as Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO) were listed on stock exchanges this fiscal.

The government had launched a new Exchange Traded Fund (Bharat-22 ETF) comprising stocks of 22 companies this fiscal, thereby raising Rs 14,500 crore.