The finance ministry has sent a list of 11 profit-making public sector undertakings to the Prime Minister's Office for divesting government stakes in them during the current financial year.
Confirming the development, highly placed government sources have said that at least six of these PSUs will enter the market before the year-end.
"The PMO will discuss with respective ministries (to which these PSUs belong) and take a final call on the six profit-making PSUs which will be taken to the market," the sources said. In all the 11 PSUs, the government's stakes vary between 80 per cent and close to 100 per cent.
The Divestment Development: Complete Coverage
"A few of them are virtually wholly owned by the government," the sources said adding that the government did not expect any opposition from any quarter to the proposed divestment and that the Left parties had already been taken into confidence.
"We have discussed this with the Left and there will be no problem in pushing the plan, at least for six PSUs. We will not be able to do more than that as there is not much time left in the year," sources said.
In each of these PSUs, the government plans to divest 10 per cent stake. However, there can be a combination of divestment of government stakes as well as their dilution through issuance of fresh shares. In that case, there will be 7.5 per cent divestment and another 7.5 per cent fresh issue, taking the total size to 15 per cent.
"There will be simultaneous divestment and new share issuance. The exact plan will be chalked out after the PMO discusses the list of PSUs with the respective ministries," said the sources.
How much money the government is planning to raise through this divestment is not known. All issues will follow the book-building route.
Last week, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said in Mumbai the government would sell small stakes in some of the profit-making PSUs other than the "navaratna" companies. There are over 240 central PSUs and eight of them have been accorded "navaratna" status, including the big oil PSUs and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.
The government could not go ahead with its plans to divest a part of its stake in Bhel due to stiff opposition from the Left parties. A total of 144 PSUs are making profits.
On the block