Divestment target difficult to meet: Secy

In spite of the last ditch efforts, India’s chances to hit Rs 30,000 disinvestment target appeared bleak with Divestment Secretary Ravi Mathur on Thursday saying that reaching the aim would be difficult.

"Rs 30,000 crore disinvestment target may be difficult to reach. My calculation is Rs 25,000 or Rs 26,000 crore. And we will try to cover Rs 27,000 crore," Mathur said.

With just two months left for the fiscal year to end, the government has so far been able to garner only Rs 6,900 crore from the stake sale. The Oil India Ltd divestment which is going to take place on Friday is expected to fetch the exchequer up to Rs 3,000 crore.

Although the government has lined up at least 10 PSUs, including NTPC, SAIL, NALCO and MMTC, for sale this
year, it is not clear if there is enough appetite in the market to respond to all in these two months. The disinvestment in  Bhel, scheduled for this fiscal, has been deferred due to a bleak market scenario in the power sector.

Bhel is facing order crunch from the power companies. The banks are shying away from lending to power projects which have not received environmental clearances.