New Delhi : The finance ministry is looking at multiple options to meet its divestment target in the current financial year ending March as strategic sale in public sector companies looks difficult because of the tight timeline, a government official said, reports Cogencis. .”There are various permutations and combinations, how the target is met won’t matter at the end of the financial year, the total number will matter,”the official told Cogencis.The government has set a target to raise 565 bln rupees from divestment in2016-17, including 205 bln rupees from strategic stake sales.
The Cabinet had last month given in-principle approval to strategic salein state-owned companies, but said individual proposals will be approved on a case-to-case basis.
However, with a little less than five months for the financialyear to end, the ministry is not sure about meeting the target for disinvestments through strategic sales.
“Strategic sales could have been done earlier, we were late. The wholemechanics of getting to the Cabinet stage, that took a lot of time,” the official said.
The government has a ready pipeline and may decide on the option depending on market conditions, the official said.
