He said the government expects Rs 50,000 crore in dividends from public sector companies in the current financial year and is also working on a Rs 6-lakh-crore asset-monetisation strategy and hopes to come out with plans for GAIL pipelines soon.
“The disinvestment agenda has been put on fast track through the unveiling of the new PSE (public sector enterprises) policy, notified on February 4, 2021, which is expected to be an important policy for the next five years and will result in increase in privatisation in the economy,” Pandey told an interaction at the annual session of CII.
He said the major disinvestments in pipeline this year, as underlined in the Union Budget, include Air India, BPCL, , BEML, Pawan Hans and Neelachal Ispat Nigam and in all these enterprises, the government has got sufficient interest from bidders, who are now at the second stage of due diligence.
“After 17 years, the country will actually see privatisation, since the last time in 2003-04 in the then NDA government,” said Pandey. He also reiterated that the government aims to list state-run insurance behemoth LIC by year-end. “A mega listing is planned this year, which will be the biggest in history of Indian stock market.”
