The government exceeded its divestment target for the second straight financial year, helped by its stake sale in power sector financer REC Ltd. to state-run peer Power Finance Corporation Ltd. and offloading shares in public sector entities through exchange traded funds.
The divestment receipts for the ongoing financial year touched Rs 85,000 crore against the targeted Rs 80,000 crore, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a tweet.
PFC agreed to buy the government's 52.63 percent stake in REC for Rs 14,500 crore. The government will also receive Rs 10,000 crore from the fourth further fund offer of CPSE ETFs that closed today, Atanu Chakraborty, secretary at Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, said in a tweet.
CPSE ETF FFO4 oversubscribed by about 8 times so far against the base issue size of Rs 3500 crores. Government has decided to retain Rs 10,000 crores. pic.twitter.com/nK9eIBFGDC
This year, a sizeable chunk of divestment proceeds—Rs 18,729 crore—came from the Bharat 22 ETF, followed by Rs 17,000 crore from the third further fund offer of CPSE ETFs. Offer-for-sale of stake in Coal India Ltd. and share buyback Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., too, helped the government mop up Rs 5,218 crore and Rs 2,647 crore, respectively, during the financial year ending March 2019.
In 2017-18, the government's divestment receipts had met the revised budgeted target of Rs 1 lakh crore. That was aided by Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.'s acquisition of a 51 percent stake in public sector refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. for Rs 36,915 crore.
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