Jaitley to hold review meeting on PSU disinvestment

New Delhi, Jul 20: Amidst opposition from central trade unions, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to hold a review meeting this week on disinvestment plans for the fiscal.

Sources said the meeting with Disinvestment Secretary Aradhana Johri would focus on the PSU stake sale schedule of the fiscal. "It is a review meeting and strategic sales would be discussed. It is basically a strategy meeting," an official said.

The government plans to raise Rs 69,500 crore through PSU stake sale in current fiscal. Of this, Rs 41,500 crore is to come from minority stake sale and another Rs 28,000 crore from strategic sale.

So far this fiscal, government has been able to disinvest stake in only one PSU, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), due to volatile market conditions.

The Disinvestment Department already has cabinet approvals for Rs 50,000 crore worth PSU stake sale, but volatility in stock markets is delaying the plans. As regards strategic stake sale on PSU, Jaitley had earlier indicated that the first such sale could come from PSUs under tourism ministry.

The tourism ministry is also considering to sell eight loss making hotels of ITDC. Yesterday, trade unions had expressed their disagreement on government's disinvestment plan during the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) General Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta had said unions would oppose disinvestment and the government's move to change labour laws as it would hurt the interest of workers.

PTI