Govt may give nod for divestment in CIL

The government is likely to give the green signal for offloading its equity in companies such as Coal India, Hindustan Copper, Power Grid and Shipping Corporation within the next few weeks.

"The cabinet will consider CIL disinvestment this week or next week. The other three approvals (Hindustan Copper, Power Grid and Shipping Corporation) are expected over the next few weeks," a finance ministry offical told PTI.

He further said that the Finance Ministry is looking forward to divesting the stake in Hindustan Copper, for which cabinet approval has been sought.

Besides this, the Ministry of Power is also seeking cabinet approval for divestment in the Power Grid Corporation, while the Ministry of Shipping wants clearance for the Shipping Corporation.

The first stake sale this fiscal, SJVNL, got a good response from investors -- raising over Rs 10 billion (Rs 1,000 crore).

Following this, Divestment Secretary Sumit Bose had said that EIL's divestment was likely to happen in the second half of July.

Divestment Joint Secretary Sidhartha Pradhan had recently said that the government is likely to sell its stake in 10 PSUs, including MMTC, Coal India Ltd, SAIL, RINL and the Shipping Corporation, in the current financial year.

While Hindustan Copper is likely to be disinvested in the August-September period, that for SAIL and the Power Grid will happen in September and November this year.

This would be followed by the Manganese Ore India Ltd in December, RINL in January, MMTC in February and the Shipping Corporation in March next year.

The Cabinet nod for SAIL's divestment has already been acquired. Last fiscal, the government had raised Rs 250 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) through stake sale in PSUs like Oil India, NMDC, REC and NTPC.

The Budget upped the revenue target from the sale of government equity in CPSUs to Rs 400 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) in 2010-11. "The Rs 400 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) divestment target for the current fiscal is on track," Bose had said.

As per a Cabinet decision, all listed profitable PSUs should have a public holding of at least 10 per cent, and all profitable unlisted CPSUs should be listed. As many as 60 state-run companies are eligible for divestment as per this criteria.