Make Disinvestment Process Transparent, Publish Annual Report On Asset Management: Report

Emphasising that meeting disinvestment target is pivotal to the budgetary exercise and in order to make the entire process more transparent, a Parliamentary panel has asked the government that it should publish an annual report on how it has managed public assets.

The Parliamentary standing committee on finance, headed by BJP leader Jayant Sinha, in its report on the demands for grants for the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM), has suggested that in the annual report, it should specially highlight "whether it is creating value or whether it has eroded value" of public sector undertakings (PSUs).

"Along with the disinvestment targets, the committee believes that it is necessary for DIPAM to publish an annual report on how it has managed public assets - in particular, DIPAM should highlight whether it is creating value or whether it has eroded value on an annual basis for the general public," the Parliamentary panel recommended.

"Meeting disinvestment target is pivotal to the (union) budget and wavering from the estimates may lead to quantum change in the fiscal dynamics and thus desire that disinvestment becomes more credible, purposeful and transparent," the committee further noted.

DIPAM is mandated to manage government equity in public sector companies.

The government had budgeted to collect Rs 1.75 lakh crore through PSU disinvestment in the current fiscal. However, the revised estimates has scaled down the estimation to Rs 78,000 crore.

For next fiscal (2022-23), which is to begin from April 1 onwards, the disinvestment target has been set at Rs 65,000 crore.