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Oil India Stake Sale Only in Next Financial Year

Govt disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 cr may not be achieved

  • The much-touted 10 per cent government stake sale in Oil India will not happen this financial year.“Share sale (in Oil India) is not happening in March for sure. It may be considered in the new financial year,” said a government official, who is in know of the developments. He made it clear that Rs 3,000 mop up originally scheduled before March this year will not now happen.

  • Government is desperate to meet this financial year’s disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore. Meeting this target was critical to bridge the widening fiscal deficit.The fiscal deficit pegged at 4.6 per cent of GDP is widely expected to overshoot by one per cent of GDP in the face of mounting expenditure on oil and fertiliser subsidy coupled with falling tax revenue due to slowdown in economic growth.Government has so far mopped up Rs 13,912 crore so far this year through disinvestment. While, ONGC yielded Rs 12,766.75 crore, Power Finance Corporation helped to garner Rs 1,144 crore. For first time, an auction route was used to sell ONGC shares.On a year-to-year, BSE index Sensex has dropped by six per cent, whereas Oil India stock has risen by about 2.4 per cent during the same period.

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