Business Bureau:
THE Government expects to garner Rs 5,000 crore from the asset sale of central enterprises as the budget has raised the bar for divestment proceeds to a record of Rs 1.05 lakh crore this fiscal, according to a top official. The Government will follow a four-pronged strategy, including minority stake sales through IPO, FPO and ETFs, apart from strategic divestment and asset monetisation, to meet the disinvestment target, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Atanu Chakraborty said.
The 2019-20 Budget has set a higher target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore from disinvestment for the current fiscal, compared to Rs 90,000 crore set in the Interim Budget. Chakraborty said the steps laid down in the Budget ensures larger flow into the economy. “Without larger flow you cannot have capitalisation and disinvestment receipts, whether from strategic or minority stake sale,” he said.
He said the new concept of asset monetisation or asset recycling is picking up pace gradually but is unlikely to fetch high receipts in the current fiscal. “Asset recycling or asset sale will happen this year. We do not expect on that side a very large amount to start with. I will be very happy if we can do sales worth 5,000 crore this year,” Chakraborty said. Recalling the experience of launch of government's first Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), he said.