The Finance Minister also said that the Government is keen on taking steps that are necessary in order to meet the public shareholding norms of 25% which is applied to all listed public sector undertakings. The move is aimed at increasing the permissible sectoral limits that apply to all public sector undertakings that are part of the emerging market index. The Finance Minister went on to add that the public sector undertakings might have to dilute their stake further Sebi has been asked to consider raising the current threshold for public shareholding from 25% to 35%.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management is working on appointing a panel of six transaction advisors to help figure out the way forward with the sale of non-core assets of public sector undertakings.
In March, the Government gained Rs 1,000 crore after the sale of Dredging Corp to a consortium and Rs 2,000 crore after selling enemy shares. The Government has also been successful in completing two initial public offerings of Mazagon Docks and MSTC, an Indian state-owned e-commerce company based in Kolkata. The last financial year (2018-19) saw the Government collecting Rs 80,000 with disinvestment receipts.
The Government also managed to sell a 51.11% stake in Hindustan Petroleum to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp for Rs 36,915 crore. Besides, ONGC was said to buy shares worth 77.88 crore shares in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) at Rs 473.97 per share in an off-market deal. Another transaction which could be noted as a success for Government's was the selling of an entire 52.63% equity holding in Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) by Power Finance Corporation (PFC) in an off-market deal sealed at Rs 14,500 crore.
There has been much going on in the Government's plan to generate wealth with disinvestment, as NITI Aayog has prepared a list of assets that include industrial and land owned plants of enterprises that are state-owned, such as the NTPC plant of Badarpur, Bharat Earth Movers LTd., Cement Corporation of India, and Steel Authority of India Ltd.
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