Govt should raise Rs 25,000 cr from divestment per year

The government should sell a minimum 10 per cent stake in all unlisted public sector enterprises and 'auction' those that can't be revived, the Economic Survey said, while recommending a disinvestment target of Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) annually.

"Revitalise the disinvestment programme and plan to generate at least Rs 25,000 crore per year," said the Survey tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

The prescription coincides with government declaring disinvestment as one of its top most priorities for mobilisation of resources, particularly, as it is free from the pressures of the Left parties that had obstructed the process in the last five years.

Asking the government to sell a minimum of 10 per cent equity in all profit-making unlisted PSUs, it said: "Complete the process of selling 5-10 per cent equity in previously identified profit making non-Navratnas."

As regards the loss-making PSUs, the Survey said the government needs to 'auction all loss making PSUs that cannot be revived. For those in which net worth is zero, allow negative bidding in the form of debt-write off.'

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to unveil the road map for disinvestment in the Budget, to be presented in the Lok Sabha on July 6.

The survey also suggested that government should transfer management control of two sick subsidiaries of Coal India Limited -- Eastern Coalfields Limited and Bharat Coking Coal Limited -- to private parties.

The government, it added, should sell 49 per cent shares in the two subsidiaries to public, besides inducting strategic partners by handing over 26 per cent stake to them.

The strategic partners, it said, could be selected through the auction route. There are 242 central public sector undertakings under the administrative control of various ministries having a cumulative investment of Rs 4.55 lakh crore (Rs 4.55 trillion).