Govt unlikely to meet divestment target for FY12; fiscal deficit to rise 5.6%

16 Feb 2012 Evaluate

 With only one-hand-half months left for the current financial year to end, the finance ministry admitted that government will not be able to meet the ambitious disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for 2011-12. Disinvestment Secretary, Mohammad Haleem Khan said, ‘there is no need to speculate at this point of time as everybody knows that Rs 40,000 crore (target) is now almost impossible .’

By adding further he said, ‘let the next Empowered Group of Ministers meeting (EGoM) take place then I can tell you (how much we can raise this fiscal).’ The government on the other hand has managed to raise only Rs 1,145 crore via stake sale in the Power Finance Corporation (PFC). Given the recent market turbulence caused by the global uncertainty, the government had to delay stake sales of other blue-chip state-owned companies.

The government had earlier set a disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for the FY’12 fiscal. However, foreign investor appetite for equities was severely impacted due to choppy markets and the euro zone sovereign debt crisis. Further, the initial public offering (IPO) of National Buildings Construction Corp could also bring around Rs 250 crore to the exchequer.

The EGoM, which met under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, has decided to auction 5% stake in ONGC to institutional investors. However the stake sale in BHEL was deferred given the current poor sentiment in the power sector. Several stake sale proposals such as follow-on issues by Indian Oil, SAIL and MMTC were also put on hold due to adverse market conditions, as per the Disinvestment Secretary. It was also confirmed that the auction method of SEBI guideline, would be used in the stake sale of ONGC and BHEL.

The Centre is currently looking at all options to boost its revenue collections as the fiscal deficit may be more than 5.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP), compared to the Budget target of 4.6%. There is a shortfall of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore due to missed divestment target, higher subsidy bill and lower than estimated revenue collections on the direct tax front.

If yesterday’s decision of 5% stake sale in ONGC is implemented in this fiscal, it could bring an additional Rs 12,000 crore to the government. All put together, the government could expect a maximum of Rs 13,395 crore in this fiscal, which in any case is less than the targeted amount of Rs 40,000 crore.

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