NITI Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant has said that the Aayog is working on a new list of sick and loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) that could be privatized. He said that they have already sent four lists of sick PSUs and are working on the fifth list, and added that they will also prepare sixth and seventh list of sick PSUs.
Kant has stated that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the government think-tank to look into the viability of sick state-run companies. He also pointed out that the Aayog has already recommended 40 sick PSUs for strategic disinvestment. He noted that Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is working on it and the process is on advanced stage.
During the financial year 2017-18, the government raised around Rs 1 lakh crore from PSU disinvestment and set a target of Rs 80,000 crore for FY19. In the Union Budget presented on February 1 last year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley 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.