Centre aims to privatise Air India, BPCL this fiscal

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The Centre’s disinvestment plan is on track and the government intends to privatise Air India and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) in the current financial year.

Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary, department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM), also said the expression for interest for Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) is expected to commence shortly after the finalisation of the land lease policy.

Pandey said in the current fiscal the Centre expects to rake in Rs 50,000 crore in dividends from public sector undertakings (PSUs). The Centre is also expected to draft a plan for GAIL pipelines soon.

He stated that the major privatisation plans that are in the pipeline this year are in accordance with the announcements made in the Union Budget.

“Shipping Corporation of India, Pawan Hans and Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd are the companies where we got sufficient interest from bidders. We are now in the second stage and financial bidding will be completed in this FY,” he said.

Rs 6 trillion asset monetisation plan

Pandey said the government is also working on a Rs 6 trillion monetisation plan. Prime minister Narendra Modi had said earlier that the government was looking to garner Rs 2.5 trillion through sale of 100 assets of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). The increased Rs 6-trillion asset monetisation target may now include assets of government departments state governments, according to a report in the Business Standard.

Disinvestment target

The Centre has set a goal of raising Rs 1.75 lakh crore from disinvestment in PSUs in FY22. Pandey said the entire process was badly hit due to the devastating second wave of Covid-19.

Pandey also highlighted the fact that after a long gap of 17 years, India will see “actual privatisation” and the last time something similar happened in India was in 2003-04 under the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He also threw light on LIC’s listing which is expected to be India’s largest IPO and is planned for the current fiscal. Pandey said that LIC’s listing will be the biggest of its kind in the history of the Indian stock market.