Chennai: The finance minister left industry wondering about the absence of any mention of disinvestments. A glance at the budget document shows that the government has put a stop to it, at least till the next one year.

In the last budget, the government had estimated a revenue of Rs4,091 crore (original estimates were Rs4,000 crore) from disinvestments.

However, in budget 2005-06 no figure has been specified against that head. It may be recalled that last year the government had announced its plans to divest its stake in Maruti Udyog Limited and Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco).

Perhaps, the finance minister has done this to buy peace from the left parties that lend critical support to the government. It may be recalled the left parties voiced their strong opposition to the recent governments announcement to hike foreign direct investments to 74 per cent in the telecom sector.