The government will try and give a push to its staggered sell-off programme in the last two months of the fiscal

and garner up to R15,000 crore.

This follows the Securities and Exchange Board of India?s (Sebi) recent decisions to allow the auctioning route for top 100 companies for stake sales via the stock market and the introduction of the Institutional Placement Programme (IPP) for CPSEs in which government holds over 90% stake.

Sebi is expected to clear minutes of the last board meeting that deliberated and decided on these two facilities on Saturday.

A senior government official told FE: ?Once Sebi approves the minutes of the meeting, it is expected to release the guidelines for the new route within a week?.

A senior official from the disinvestment department said the thinking in the ministry is to come out with the offers of ONGC, BHEL and Sail through the auctioning route under which the issuer company has to offer at least 1% of the paid-up capital.

Additionally, the IPP will be used to sell stakes in companies like MMTC where the government stake is above 90% (there are eight PSEs, including MMTC, HTC and National Fertilizers, where the government stake is higher than 90%).

The disinvestment department is keenly waiting for clarity on the Sebi framework. The official added that the main aim is to push those offers, which have already got a Cabinet approval and on which there is a general consensus among the ministries.

But he added that a fresh cabinet approval may be sought as the options now being considered are different from traditional follow-on offers.

?This was largely expected after Sebi made the announcement as ONGC and Sail are blue-chip companies, and hence, have a lot of interest in the investor circle. Both the routes, whether auctioning or IPP, will garner government better funds than going to the market?, Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research, SMC Global Securities said.

He further added that these two routes are less time-consuming than conventional FPOs. It is believed that the government can garner R10,000-15,000 crore by pushing ONGC, BHEL and Sail through this route.

The government has managed to raise only R1,144 crore so far this fiscal through the PSE stake sale? from equity sale in Power Finance Corporation, against the target of R40,000 crore for the fiscal year.