The government is working to prepare a backup plan to meet their disinvestment target, sources say. The NDA government is looking at 14-15 new companies to divest. However, the names of the companies are not out yet.
But, there is going to be a meeting on Monday and Tuesday between various ministries as well as the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Disinvestment to take a look at the possible additions to the disinvestment list, not just for FY15 but also to draw up a roadmap at least for FY16.
It is looking extremely daunting for the government to be able to meet its disinvestment target for FY15. There is trouble on the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) front as well as on the Coal India front. Coal India now has been pushed to January.
ONGC as well as investors continue to seek a roadmap as far as the subsidy sharing mechanism is concerned. Sources say the PMO, finance ministry and oil ministry are meeting practically every day to be able to draw up a roadmap and are hoping for a closure on that soon. However, up until there is clarity on that roadmap, it is unlikely that the ONGC issue is going to go through.
With these two big divestments out of the picture for now, the government is trying to figure out ways of being able to come as close as possible to that disinvestment target. So post Monday and Tuesday, there should be clarity in terms of additions - for FY15, the government is hoping that it will at least be able to add four-five companies if not more and the rest of it will be pushed to FY16. There is hope that in FY16, as opposed to what happened this year and in the past where everything got bunched up towards November and December or to the latter part of the fiscal year, there will be one disinvestment a month.
This is a back-up plan but it is looking daunting. SUUTI, nothing is going to move on that front at least not at this point in time. There are meetings that are slated later for this month and they are also awaiting clarity from the court on that front, so that too is a question mark.
So on disinvestment, whether it is the offer-for-sale (OFS) route or it is the residual stake sale a question mark on being able to meet that target and hence the need for some sort of a back-up plan to be put together.
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