The government has deliberately not fixed a specific disinvestment target for fiscal year 2024-25, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey has said.
Speaking to reporters on February 1 after the presentation of the interim Budget for the next financial year, Pandey said the government's disinvestment strategy must be calibrated while also focussing on the creation of wealth.
Also Read: Budget and its numbers – A breakdown of key estimates for FY25
"In one year alone, we have added Rs 25 lakh crore of wealth," Pandey said in the post-Budget press briefing, referring to the increase in the market capitalisation of the 61 listed Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and 16 public sector banks.
"Compare that to the Rs 4.2 lakh crore of disinvestment that we have done since 2014 and the Rs 4 lakh crore of dividend from CPSEs. That's around Rs 8.5 lakh crore in total. So if we want to do disinvestment, it has to be done in a calibrated manner and wealth has to be increased too," Pandey said.
"That's why the government has not fixed a disinvestment target for 2024-25 as of now," he added.
As per the Budget documents, the government has estimated it will get Rs 50,000 crore in 2024-25 in the form of 'Miscellaneous Capital Receipts', without mentioning the word disinvestment. However, the 2023-24 Budget – under the same 'Miscellaneous Capital Receipts' head totalling Rs 61,000 crore – had pegged the disinvestment target for 2023-24 at Rs 51,000 crore.
In the 2024-25 budget, the overall 'Miscellaneous Capital Receipts' head for the current financial year has been revised down to Rs 30,000 crore.
So far in 2023-24, the government has only managed to raise Rs 12,504 crore through disinvestment.
"What we have done (in 2024-25) is that under other receipts we have kept asset monetisation and disinvestment… If we get the opportunity, we can even do more (than Rs 50,000 crore)," Pandey said, arguing that fixing the disinvestment target at a particular level also sent a signal to the market that the government would "definitely sell some shares at some price, and that has an impact on the market".
Commenting on the government's expected dividend receipts, Pandey said it was an important part of non-tax revenue.
For 2024-25, the government expects to get Rs 1.02 lakh crore as dividend from the Reserve Bank of India and public sector banks and Rs 48,000 crore as dividends from public sector enterprises and other investments.
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