Govt must keep divestment target reasonable in Budget

The industry has urged the government to keep the divestment target reasonable in the Budget 2016-17, in the wake of continuous faltering on the share sale target year-after-year.

This year too, the govt will have to drastically cut target from close to Rs 70,000 crore as it has been able to raise only close to Rs 13,000 crore till now.

The financial year will come to a close on March 31, 2015, but it looks highly unlikely that the government will go in for any big ticket divestment, given the choppy market conditions.

“It is given that with just about a month to go for the Budget presentation and the window of opportunity having been missed earlier in the year, there is no hope that the over-optimistic target of Rs 69,500 crore for the current financial year could be reached.

Hopefully, the Finance Ministry will desist from setting an unrealistic disinvestment yet again for 2016-17,” an Assocham paper on Budget expectations pointed out.

The paper noted that but for a windfall from a steep reduction in the crude oil prices, the Finance Ministry will have found a huge shortfall in the revenue budget in 2015-16.