The government should not find it difficult to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 12,000 crore this fiscal. Given the level of reserves in the public sector companies slated for sale, it should be able to finally meet its annual target after consistently missing out through the last decade.
In 1999-2000, the reserves in the companies put up for disinvestment totalled over Rs 24,000 crore. Adding the reserves for Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), which the department of disinvestment plans to take up this year, the figure goes up to almost Rs 28,000 crore.
Of this, the government
