Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on disinvestment has been cancelled on Thursday as finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was supposed to be present, could not make it to the meeting today.
It may be recalled that CCEA has this week cleared the proposal for disinvestment of Government holdings in selected public sector undertakings during 1994-95 as per the approved guidelines. An official spokesman told newsmen here on Saturday that holdings in 21 PSUs would be disinvested during the period.
The disinvestment level would be in the region of 10 percent to 20 percent.
The disinvestment would be done via three routes: auction, buying by the Government and selling to the public and putting a fix price for the shares and offering them to the public.
The government on August 27 deferred a decision on its stake sale in three PSUs — ONGC, Coal India and NHPC as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was not in town.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs did not take up the disinvestment proposals as the minister concerned was not present, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the CCEA meeting. As per estimates, disinvestment in the three PSUs could yield the exchequer over Rs 40,000 crore, enough to meet the target for the current fiscal. The proposals before the CCEA, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was to sell 5 per cent stake in ONGC, which could fetch about Rs 18,000 crore at current market price.
Besides another 10 per cent stake sale of Coal India which could fetch about Rs 22,000 crore to the exchequer. Also the 11.36 per cent stake sale in NHPC could fetch over Rs 2,600 crore.
In the current fiscal the government plans to mop up Rs. 43,425 crore from selling stake in PSUs.
With PTI Inputs
