Government seeking maximum bang for PSU stake sale: Pranab
01 Dec 2009
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that the government would not sell more than 10 per cent of its stake in public sector undertakings (PSUs) at this stage, and added that the government's divestment objective is to get the maximum price for whatever stake it sells.
''The government will not undertake a strategic sale in PSUs. The best time for divestment in PSUs has to be ascertained,'' he told the Rajya Sabha in reply to questions.
He also ruled out price concessions to PSU employees. ''We can't give price concession to PSU staff for company shares because it would distort pricing,'' he said.
As tax revenues shrink, Mukherjee admitted that the current level of fiscal deficit is not sustainable.
"The FRBM rules cannot be ignored. We are turning to divestment as the revenue mop-up is no longer buoyant," he said, adding that revenue receipts may not rise as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) till fiscal 2011-12.
He also said the current inflationary trends India are a result of a shortage of food items and not due to a demand-push factor. The food articles index rose an annual 15.6 per cent as on 14 November, up from the previous week's 14.6 per cent rise.