The department of disinvestment is in talks with administrative departments of several central public sector enterprises to expand the list of entities in which government can shed some equity during current fiscal.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr SS Palanimanickam in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question. Already, the Government has approved disinvestment of 5% equity capital of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, 5% equity capital of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and 10% paid up capital of National Building Corporation Limited.

Mr Palanimanickam said that other cases of disinvestment at various stages of approval are Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Steel Authority of India Limited and Hindustan Copper Limited.

He also said in the written reply that the proposal for enabling department of disinvestment to respond to the decision of a listed CPSE having surplus cash to buyback their shares have been formulated for seeking government approval.

The minister added that the buyback decision is to be taken by the Board of Directors of the CPSE concerned, keeping in view all factors.

As against disinvestment target of INR 40,000 crore, the Centre has so far mopped up only INR 1144.55 crore, which came from divestment of 5 % equity stake of Power Finance Corporation.

(Sourced from BL)