Chasing a Rs 5,000 crore target, the government will sell 5 per cent stake in India’s largest power producer NTPC on Tuesday.

The disinvestment is being carried out less than a week ahead of the Budget. Still the government will remain grossly behind the target of Rs 69,500 crore.

So far, it has been able to garner meagre Rs 13,300 crore through divestment due to volatile market conditions and lower oil and commodity prices. Most of the companies in which the government wants to offload its share are in the oil or metal sector.

The newly-appointed disinvestment secretary Neeraj Gupta had recently said that disinvestment should not be confined to dates and that prudent and timely disinvestment will take place.

The NTPC will go under hammer for two days with the first day reserved for institutional bidders. Retails investors, for whom 20 per cent shares have been reserved, will get to bid on February 24.

“Retail investors shall be allowed to place their bids only on the T+1 day. Further, those non-Retail investors who have placed their bids on T day and have chosen to carry forward their bids to T+1 day, shall be allowed to revise their bids on T+1 day as per the SEBI OFS Circulars,” NTPC said.