Rs 85,000 crore gain! Sale of 'enemy shares', buybacks by CPSEs boost government's disinvestment target

Sale of 'enemy shares' and buyback of stocks by CPSEs have together yielded the government over Rs 11,300 crore, thus helping the exchequer mop up Rs 85,000 crore from disinvestment in the current fiscal -- the second highest receipt ever. The government has garnered Rs 700 crore through the first ever sale of 'enemy shares' after the Cabinet in November 2018 gave its go-ahead to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to sell such shares held in companies.

Enemy property refers to the assets left behind by people who migrated to Pakistan or China and are no longer citizens of India.

Besides, over Rs 10,600 crore has come in from buyback of government shares by Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).

In 2018-19, the government for the second time in a row exceeded the disinvestment target by mopping up Rs 85,000 crore as against the budget estimate of Rs 80,000 crore.

In 2017-18, the government mopped up a record over Rs 1 lakh crore, against the target of Rs 72,500 crore.

During the current fiscal, share sale through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) has yielded the highest amount of Rs 45,729 crore, followed by Rs 14,500 crore from acquisition of the government's 52.63 per cent stake in REC by state-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

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In addition, the government has received Rs 1,929 crore via initial public offering (IPO) of five companies -- MSTC, RITES, Ircon, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Midhani.

The government has received Rs 5,218 crore from offer for sale (OFS) of Coal India, and another Rs 5,379 crore from sale of SUUTI stake in Axis Bank.

As regards the buybacks, the government has mopped up over Rs 10,600 crore. The companies which bought back the government stake include ONGC, IOC, Coal India, Oil India and NLC.

For the next fiscal, the government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 90,000 crore.