The government will sell its stake in 23 public sector companies: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaram

New Delhi, 27 July 2020 Monday

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaram today said that work is underway to complete the sale of government stakes in 23 public sector companies.

Cabinet approval has been given to sell government stake in these companies. He said the government wants to sell its stake in public companies when it gets a fair price.

Sitaram said 22-23 PSUs have already received cabinet approval for disinvestment. Our intention is clear that at least these companies should be disinvested.

The government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 2.10 lakh crore for the financial year 2020-21. Of this, Rs 1.20 lakh crore will come from disinvestment of PSUs and Rs 90,000 crore will be raised by selling stakes in financial institutions.

The Finance Minister in a conversation with Hero Enterprise Chairman Sunil Kant Munjal said that the government had announced to open several areas for private partnership under the Self-Reliant India Package. A final decision has not yet been made on which areas will be called strategic, he said.

It remains to be announced and so far I cannot predict what I will reveal. But the private sector will also be allowed in the strategic sector and will have four units in the public sector. The finance minister said he would consolidate the PSUs and at the same time increase their operations.

He also said that he would soon meet with small finance companies and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to review the credit given to their businesses.

On lending to the industry, the finance minister said micro, small and medium enterprises can get loans under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).

As on July 23, a loan of Rs 1,30,491.79 crore was sanctioned under this, out of which Rs 82,065.01 crore has been allocated.