Govt sets FY17 disinvestment target at Rs 56,500 crore

New Delhi: The government aims to collect Rs 56,500 crore through disinvestment in PSUs in the next fiscal, as per the Budget for 2016-17.

Of the total budgeted proceeds, Rs 36,000 crore is estimated to come from minority stake sale in PSUs, and the remaining Rs 20,500 crore is projected to come from strategic sale in both profit and loss-making companies.

As regards the current year, the government has been able to meet less than half the budget estimates at Rs 25,312 crore as against the target of Rs 69,500 crore.

The revised estimates have pegged the disinvestment receipts from minority stake sale in PSUs at Rs 25,312 crore, as against the target of Rs 41,000 crore. It does not expect any revenues from strategic stake sale.

It has so far been able to sell stake in six PSUs - Rural Electrification Corp (Rs 1,608 crore), Power Finance Corp (Rs 1,671 crore), Dredging Corp of India Ltd (Rs 53.33 crore), Indian Oil Corp (Rs 9,369 crore), Engineers India Ltd (Rs 640 crore) and NTPC (Rs 5,030 crore).

2015-16 is the sixth straight fiscal when the government has missed the disinvestment target set in Budget.

Volatile market conditions have affected the government's disinvestment plan, which mostly has commodity and oil stocks in the pipeline.

So far this fiscal, the Sensex has plunged about 16 percent on various global factors including fears of interest rate hike in the US, China slowdown and uncertainties in Eurozone.