Divestment to get big pre-budget push, says Jaitley

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the government has put in place an aggressive disinvestment programme to meet the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent in the current fiscal year.

''As far as disinvestment figures are concerned, we still have close to three months left. And I can only tell you this is going to be period of great activity as far as disinvestment is concerned,'' he said at a CNBC-TV18 award function.

''I am not going to give any indication but major disinvestment in the coming months prior to March 31 is going to take place,'' he added.

Whith a disinvestment target is Rs58,425 crore for this fiscal, the government had raised around Rs1,700 crore through the sale of equity in steelmaker SAIL. Companies like ONGC, NHPC and Coal India have been lined up for disinvestment with five per cent equity offering which will bring down the government stake to around 75 per cent.

Jaitley shared the dais with Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan, and despite reported differences over a cut in the central bank's policy rates, reports said the two appeared to be on the same page, with no real dissension in their views.