Govt fails to decide on ONGC, BHEL stake sale, to meet again

With just one-and-half months left to meet the Rs40,000 crore disinvestment target for this fiscal, a panel of Ministers on Wednesday failed to take a decision on stake sale of blue chip oil major ONGC and engineering giant BHEL and decided to meet again to take a final call.

"(The government is) considering auction route for ONGC (disinvestment). No time line fixed as yet. Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to meet again shortly", Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, S Jaipal Reddy, told reporters after the meeting of the EGoM here.

As regards BHEL, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel said, "no decision on BHEL disinvestment...May happen next fiscal".

The EGoM, which met under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was slated to take a call on stake sale in the two major PSUs with a view to garnering about Rs14,500 crore in the current fiscal itself.

The government in the budget for 2011-12 had envisaged to raise Rs40,000 crore through PSU disinvestment, but in over 10 months it could mop up only Rs1,145 crore from stake sale in the Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

The target of Rs40,000 crore, according to  Disinvestment Secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan, "is now almost impossible (to meet)".

He further said that a final picture with regard to raising funds from disinvestment in the current fiscal would emerge after the next meeting of the EGoM