ONGC stake sale plan put off

New Delhi: Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday didn’t take up the proposal of divestment in ONGC, Coal India and NHPC as finance minister Arun Jaitley was not available. Mr Jaitley, who also holds the charge of the defence ministry was in Mumbai to review the progress of ‘Project 75’ (indigenous submarine construction project) along with other ongoing warship building projects including P-15 B class stealth destroyers.

“Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs did not take up the disinvestment proposals as the minister concerned was not present,” said law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad after the CCEA meeting. Finance ministry is looking to aggressively go for the divestment due to the bull run in the markets after Modi government came into the power at the Centre. There are hopes that due to current bullish sentiments, these PSU could fetch high valuations for the government. In the current fiscal the government plans to mop up Rs 43,425 crore from selling stake in PSUs.