Govt. approves divestment in four PSUs

public-sector-unitsThe Union Government’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Friday approved plan of disinvestment in four public sector units (PSUs) for the current fiscal.

According to the CCEA approval, the government will slash its stake in Hindustan Copper, Oil India Ltd., MMTC and Nalco. The Centre will offload 10 per cent and 9.59 per cent of its stakes in Oil India Ltd and Hindustan Copper respectively.

As for Nalco and MMTC, the Centre has plans to offload its stakes to the extent of 12.15 per cent and 9.33 per cent respectively.

In Oil India, the government currently hold 78.43 per cent stake. After the planned disinvestment, the government's stake in the PSU will come down to 68.43 per cent. Likewise, the government’s stake in Hindustan Copper will drop from 99.59 per cent to 90 per cent.

PwC (energy, utilities & mining) executive director Kameswara Rao welcomed the move, saying “The fundamentals of these companies are robust and they are not dependent on the coal issues. I think the timing of disinvestment is good.”

Last month, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had asked officials to accelerate the divestment process to allow the PSUs to hit the stock exchanges in time.

Offloading the stakes in the four PSUs will generate nearly Rs. 15,000 crore for the government, 50 per cent of the Rs. 30,000-crore divestment target set for the current fiscal.