New Delhi: The central government may maintain its new calibrated approach to asset-sale strategy in the forthcoming Budget by sticking to its capital-receipts target of Rs 50,000 crore in 2024–25 (FY25) on account of disinvestment, asset monetisation, and other capital receipts, reports have indicated.
Furthermore, the strategic sale of IDBI Bank will continue to be the key priority. But given the procedure, the deal might be extended until FY26.
The centre had revised its capital management plan in the February Interim Budget. It did not specifically state the FY25 disinvestment target for the first time. It has set a miscellaneous capital receipts target of Rs 50,000 crore.
Non-debt capital receipts include loans and advances, in contrast to earlier classifications of loans and advances, disinvestment, and asset monetisation. According to budget records, the objective of Rs 61,000 crore established in February 2023 has been reduced to Rs 30,000 crore in the Revised Estimate (RE) for such receipts during FY24. 51,000 crore rupees were part of that for disinvestment.
Some significant asset-sale proposals, including those pertaining to IDBI Bank, Shipping Corporation of India, NMDC Steel, and BEML, were then postponed. With the exception of FY18 and FY19, the Center's divestment receipts have not met projections since 2010, despite the fact that the targets are getting higher every year.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) anticipates completing a number of transactions for this fiscal year, including the IDBI Bank transaction. The Reserve Bank of India's approval is awaited by the Dipam on the bank. The "fit and proper criteria" of the possible bidders are being examined by the central bank.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India and the Center would jointly sell 60.72 percent of the bank.
"We haven't maintained a set goal for divesting... It is imperative that we adopt a new paradigm in our thinking and stop disposing of that money all at once. In a conference following the Interim Budget, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary of DIPAM, informed media, "We can always do it in a gradual, calibrated way."
The government may increase the projected dividend from central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) in the July Budget. Dividends from non-financial CPSEs were set at Rs 48,000 crore in the Interim Budget.
CPSEs have distributed dividends of Rs 4,917.58 crore as far in this fiscal year. This includes a special dividend of Rs 3,443 crore from Telecommunications Consultants India, a Ministry of Telecom-affiliated company.
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