As the government is likely to miss its divestment target for the fifth consecutive year in FY24 by a wide margin, expectations for the new fiscal in the interim budget is not high as previous stake sale plans are yet to materialise
Well, it is no more surprising, if the same thing is repeated for five years. There is no doubt that the government’s divestment plans laid out in Union Budgets is mostly ambitious, but it has hardly met its own target. For the fifth consecutive year, the government is unlikely to meet the divestment target of FY2024 by a wide margin, with hardly three full months left for the fiscal closing.
The government aimed to garner Rs 51,000 crore (Rs 510 billion) by end of March 2024 by selling stake in public sector undertakings (PSUs). However, that looks unachievable, considering from April to November 2023, the government has mopped up only Rs 8,860 crore, which is merely 17.4 percent of the budgeted estimates.