From SBI To ONGC: Here's How The Government's Future Disinvestment Plan Looks Like

After presenting the interim budget 2024 on Thursday (1 February), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has expressed the government's willingness to consider disinvestment of equity stakes in prominent Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), including the State Bank of India (SBI) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC).

Speaking at an interview, when questioned about the possibility of the government holding a minority stake (less than 50 per cent) in strategic public sector companies, Sitharaman stated, "Absolutely."

She also affirmed that the government is open to holding 49 per cent or less in PSUs like SBI and ONGC, both of which currently have government stakes of 57.49 per cent and 58.89 per cent, respectively.

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“You will see periodically, DIPAM, the department which takes care of the disinvestment has slowly released a lot of government's shares into the market so that private ownerships can come in and they can take hold of those shares,” said Sitharaman.

Emphasizing the government's commitment to enhancing the valuation of PSUs, Sitharaman stated, "We are working to make sure that... the valuations are kept up."

“If you look at the public sector listed companies and their valuation in the market today, you see the kind of vibrancy which has been brought into them. The share prices have gone up, the dividends are much better than earlier. So, disinvestment is one thing but (we are working on) bringing value to them, and making sure that the market looks at them favourably.”

Sitharaman also underscored the government's move towards reducing its presence in "core strategic" sectors, allowing greater participation from the private sector.

She also expressed the government's intention to maintain a "minimum presence" in these sectors.

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