Rs49,000 crore PSU stake sale target within limits: official

Divestment secretary Sumit Bose said the government's target to raise Rs40,000  crore ($8.8 billion) through stake sales in public sector undertaking in 2010-11 is not an illusionary figure.
 
"I think there is enough appetite for government equity offerings. We will try to bring at least one issue every month in FY11," Bose, said.

The government has raised about $5.3 billion from asset sales in the current fiscal year that ends on March 31, Bose said.

The initial public offering of energy utility Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd will be the first to hit the market next financial year, while the equity offering in Engineers India is expected after June.

The country's largest domestic steel maker Steel Authority of India Ltd, coal giant Coal India Ltd and miner Hindustan Copper Ltd are some of the other firms where the government will sell stakes.
 
The government will also review the possibility of stake sales in state oil marketing firms such as Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp in 2010-11.

Early this month, in an interview with CNBC-TV18 Bose said the idea to divest public sector companies is that the common man gets ownership of these shares.

Accordingly, the government has decided to price all future issues in such a way that it will facilitate broad-base ownership. This decision has come in post mis-pricing of the earlier issues, he said.

The finance minister Pranab Mukerjee in his Budget speech talked about broad basing of ownership in public sector undertakings (PSUs).

Mukerjee said the proceeds from this stake sale will be used to invest in capital expenditure in social sector schemes to create new assets.