Public sector power major NHPC is ready to launch its initial public offer on August 7, nearly nine months after its original launch was deferred due to poor sentiment on Dalal Street. While NHPC kicks off UPA-II?s disinvestment programme, market conditions will govern stake sales in all PSUs, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
NHPC?s IPO was originally planned for October 2008, but abandoned with the Sensex crashing to 8,000-levels after the global financial crisis hit home. Indian markets have since recovered, and the Sensex closed on Tuesday at 15,331.94 points. While IPO?s of NHPC and Oil India Ltd are scheduled for the next two months, the finance ministry in the next three weeks will finalise a list of other PSUs that would hit the markets in the coming fiscal.
Minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena, however, informed the Upper House that public sector banks do not figure on this list as yet. ?The government has not received any firm proposal from any nationalised bank to raise capital through IPO during the current financial year,? Meena said.
While Pranab Mukherjee has promised to unveil a blueprint on UPA-II?s approach to disinvestment soon, he hinted at some broad guidelines for the UPA?s disinvestment policy in response to several queries from MPs during Question Hour.
BJP member Prakash Javadekar welcomed the fact that the government has started thinking positively about disinvestment and said the current mood in the markets is very good and the Centre must work out a ?real-time flexible approach? to PSU stake sales so that market conditions can be capitalised on quickly.
?We will try to get the maximum advantage from the market. And when the market is in a favourable condition, we would like to take advantage of that,? Mukherjee agreed and cited the NHPC and OIL IPOs being deferred as an example of how PSU sales have been put on hold thanks to market conditions.
When JD (U) MP NK Singh asked if the Centre would set up a new Disinvestment Commission to identify PSUs for stake sales as had been done in 1996, Mukherjee said, ?We had experimented with the Disinvestment Commission?Some initiatives were taken, but the subsequent governments did not consider it necessary to have the Disinvestment Commission. But, anyway, this is a suggestion for action,? he said.
Significantly, the minister also pointed to the Common Minimum Programme from the UPA?s previous tenure and informed the House that PSUs which have received ?Navratna? status are not being considered for disinvestment. ?All privatisation will be considered on a transparent and consultative case-by-case basis,? he said.
When CPI?s D Raja asked if the UPA had now deviated from the earlier CMP, Mukherjee said, ?Of course, there has been some re-emphasis on certain aspects of the policy.? The Centre has 214 PSUs of which 160 are profitable, 53 have incurred losses and 55 have a negative net worth.
In a separate written reply tabled in the House, minister of state for finance SS Palanimanickam said, ?It is not feasible to estimate the realisation as the same would depend on various factors such as the percentage of equity to be disinvested, the prevalent market conditions, the time of actual disinvestment, etc.?
