 "FinMin to sell stakes in PSUs in the red")
The issue of stake sale in loss-making PSUs and the two Anil Agarwal-controlled companies came up in the presentation given by the Department of Disinvestment to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday.
"We will go ahead with appointing valuers for Hindustan Zinc and Balco stake sale," Department of Disinvestment (DoD) Secretary Ravi Mathur told reporters here. He, however said it was not possible to give a timeframe for the stake sale.
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Mathur said the government was yet to start the process of identifying sick PSUs for a possible disinvestment.
Some sick PSUs include HMT Ltd, HMT Chinar Watches Ltd, Bihar Drugs & Organic Chemicals Ltd, Nagaland Pulp & Paper Co. The interim Budget had made provisions of Rs 1,500 crore for revival of loss-making PSUs.
"We apprised him (the Finance Minister) of the current policy. He wanted to understand how the last minority stake sales went through," Mathur added.
As per the interim Budget, the disinvestment proceeds have been pegged at Rs 36,925 crore and another Rs 15,000 crore from stake sale in Hindustan Zinc and Balco. The government holds 49 per cent stake in Balco and 29.5 per cent in Hindustan Zinc
In 2001-03, the government had sold majority stake in the two erstwhile PSUs to Vedanta group. At present, London-listed Vedanta holds 64.92 per cent stake in HZL and 51 per cent in Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco). In January, 2012, Vedanta had proposed acquisition of government's remaining stake in the two erstwhile PSUs for about Rs 17,275 crore.
In October, 2012, shareholders gave their nod to raise offers for acquiring the remaining government stake in HZL and Balco by up to 43 per cent or Rs 24,663 crore. The government had initially planned to sell the residual stake in these two companies last fiscal. However, in interim Budget it postponed the stake sale to the current financial year.