Credit rating agency Care Ratings in its latest report has said that the government is likely to miss its disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 crore for the current fiscal 2018-19, leading to fiscal slippage. It expected that disinvestment proceeds could be around Rs 60,000 crore for FY19. It noted that owing to a shortfall in disinvestment realisations as well in indirect tax collections under the GST regime, fiscal deficit will come in at 3.5 percent as against the targeted 3.3 percent, signifying a slippage of around Rs 20,000 crore.
According to the report, on an average, the government has achieved nearly 65 percent of the budgeted divestment target between FY14 and FY17, and pointed out that FY14 was the lowest with divestment proceeds being only 53 percent of the targeted. It also said that in FY18, total disinvestment proceeds came in at Rs 1 trillion, exceeding the budgeted target of Rs 72,500 crore. It stated that with a little over two months to go for the fiscal year to end, the government had raised Rs 32,142 crore, or 43 percent of the target as of December. It added that of this, Rs 25,325 crore has been raised through the Central Public Sector Enterprises Exchange Traded Fund (CPSE-ETF) the mechanism allowing the simultaneous sale of government stake in various CPSEs across diverse sectors through a single offer.
To make up the shortfall, rating agency said that the government has decided to come up with another tranche of ETF in the form of further fund offer of Bharat 22 ETF, and can raise about Rs 14,000 crore by selling 52.63 percent stake in Rural Electrification Corporation. It also stated that the government can raise another Rs 12,000 crore through buybacks of shares of public sector units in a context limited by the volatility in the markets.
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