‘Hope to raise Rs 13K cr from stake sale by Dec’

The finance ministry is hopeful of raising Rs 12,000-13,000 crore from stake sale in the public sector undertakings (PSUs) by December-end which could help the government to rein in fiscal deficit to around 5.3 per cent of the GDP in 2012-13.

"For the full fiscal we expect to raise Rs 30,000 crore," Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Arvind Mayaram said. Finance ministry officials are engaging in discussions with the PSUs to speed up the disinvestment process by December-March quarters. The Department of Disinvestment (DoD), the modal department for conducting PSU stake sale, has already secured Cabinet approval for stake sale in four companies — Oil India, MMTC, Hindustan Copper and Nalco — which could fetch about Rs 15,000 crore.

"We have targeted a fiscal deficit at 5.3 per cent for the current fiscal. We aim to bring it down to 3 per cent by 2016-17," Mayaram said, ruling out any further borrowing by the government.

"We will control the deficit by reducing our expenditure and realising funds from PSU disinvestment," he said.

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