Kolkata, Dec 21 (IANS) The government will devise a two-year roadmap by March for divesting its holdings in up to 61 public sector undertakings (PSUs), a top bureaucrat said here Monday.
“As of now, there are 61 companies that satisfy the criteria for selling 10 percent of their shares, according to 2007-08 estimates,” Disinvestment Secretry Sunil Mitra said

at an interactive session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here.

“The list of PSUs satisfying the divestment criteria, including registering profit for three consecutive years and not incurring accumulated loss, is on a compilation based on 2008-09 estimates. After finalising the actual number of the companies in the basket, we will formulate a national action plan for divestment for the next two years,” he added.

Mitra said his department was in dialogue with the respective ministries for the divestments.

He said after divesting five percent shares of National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and Oil India, the government had decided to off-load 10 percent shares of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), National Mining Development Corporation (NMDC), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) this fiscal.

“Though we had targeted Rs.1,120 crore by selling shares of Oil India and NHPC, the total proceeds to the government have been about four times the amount and stand at Rs.4,260 crore from these two PSUs,” Mitra said.

Now, the government hopes to raise Rs.8,000 crore from the NTPC divestment alone, he added.