New Delhi: After the successful privatization of Air India, the Government aims to privatise 5-6 more central PSUs, including the state-owned oil marketing company BPCL, by March next year, said a top government official.
Addressing a programme organized by the industry body Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in New Delhi today, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary in the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM), under the ministry of finance, said the government would invite the financial bids in the next two-three months and complete the sale process by the end of the current financial year.
Pandey said these companies include BPCL, BEML, Shipping Corporation of India Limited, state-owned helicopter operators Pawan Hans Limited, Central Electronics Limited (CEL) and Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL).
The top disinvestment officer said the process for privatization of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) was in the due diligence stage. In this year’s budget, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set a target of collecting Rs 1.75 lakh crore from disinvestment proceeds.
Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 global pandemic, the Centre could only collect Rs 32,000 crore from disinvestment in the last financial year as against the budget target of Rs 2.1 lakh crore. Pandey said the process of getting financial bids for these 5-6 PSUs will be over in the next one-two months and all of them can be privatized in the current financial year.
In addition to privatization of these PSUs, the government also aims to complete the process of listing of Life Insurance Corporation of India in the current financial year. In this year’s budget, Nirmala Sitharaman had also announced the government’s intention to privatise one public sector insurance company and two public sector banks in the current financial year.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat (a self-reliant India) policy announced last year, the Government has decided to exit the business while maintaining the bare minimum presence in the four crucial sectors of the economy.
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