SAIL divestment on the cards

 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to consider, on Thursday, a proposal for disinvesting government’s 10.82 per cent stake in Steel Authority of India (SAIL), official sources said.

The proposal, mooted by the Department of Disinvestment, was deferred in the last week’s meeting of CCEA as Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma and Steel Secretary D R S Chaudhary were not in the city.

SAIL’s share sale is proposed to be conducted through auction route or offer for sale and is expected to garner Rs 4,000 crore to the government kitty, the sources added.

However, the disinvestment department has not fixed any particular time frame for the SAIL’s stake sale as its timing will depend on market conditions, they further said.

The government currently holds 85.82 per cent stake in SAIL. Since the beginning of this fiscal, company’s shares have gone down by over 4 per cent. The poor market conditions have played spoilsport for the government to launch the disinvestment programme for the current fiscal, although it aims to raise Rs 30,000 crore by selling stakes in the public sector firms.

Hindustan Aeronautics, BHEL, National Aluminium Company (Nalco), Hindustan Copper and Oil India are some of the other PSUs which are on government’s disinvestment radar this year, besides SAIL and RINL.