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NEW DELHI, July 26

THE Government today indicated in the Lok Sabha that receipts through disinvestment during the Tenth Plan would probably be higher than the Planning Commission assessment of Rs 16,000 crore every year in the five-year period as set out in the Approach Paper.

Responding to a calling-attention motion moved by the BJP member, Mr Kirit Somaiya, the Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, said to achieve this goal, the Ministry of Disinvestment had prepared time schedules for completion of disinvestment cases already cleared by the Government and they would be put to the Cabinet for approval.

Since January 2002, the Government has completed disinvestment of seven PSUs and netted Rs 5,114.28 crore. Besides, rights issue of Rs 400 crore was completed in Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL), which was wholly subscribed by Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC).

He said Suzuki subscribed to the rights issue, including rights share renounced by the Government in favour of it at a price of Rs 3,280 per share. Besides, Suzuki paid Rs 1,000 crore as Control Premium to the Government.

Mr Shourie said in the second phase of MUL disinvestment, the Government would offload its extant shares and Suzuki had agreed to underwrite the first tranche of about 36 lakh of these shares at Rs 2,300 per share, besides providing the comfort of a ``put option'' to the Government.

The Minister said market sales of minority shares of blue-chip companies such as IOC, ONGC, GAIL and VSNL during 1991-97 received price/earning ratio of 4.4 to 6 — this was at a time when these companies were monopolies in their domain.

But through disinvestment to strategic partners, the Government now secured price/earnings ratio of 11 to 89. By selling a mere 1.02 per cent of the Government-held equity valued at Rs 885 crore, it has realised Rs 11,335 crore.

Pointing out that even at this early stage the benefits of strategic sales of PSUs were becoming tangible, Mr Shourie noted that sales of Modern Foods had almost doubled and the production of Paradeep Phosphates was reported to have tripled. The new BALCO management has announced an expansion plan costing Rs 5,000 crore, while IPCL has announced an expansion programme of Rs 1,000 crore.

When the member Mr Somaiya sought to know for what use the disinvestment proceeds were being put, Mr Shourie said that as was indicated by the Finance Minister in the Budget speech that out of the target of Rs 12,000 crore set for this fiscal, Rs 7,000 crore would be utilised for meeting the triple objectives of restructuring PSUs, safety net for employees and reduction of debt burden and the balance Rs 5,000 crore would be used to provide extra-budgetary support for plan schemes in the social sector.

Stating that currently his Ministry was pursuing 31cases of disinvestment, the Minister said the Government decided in February "in principle'' to disinvest oil companies such as HPCL and BPCL. The precise percentage to be disinvested and some other issues would be thrashed out among his Ministry, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Finance Ministry soon, he noted.

Even as Mr Somaiya was praising Mr Shourie, the Opposition members led by Mr Somnath Chatterjee, Mr Priyaranjan Dasmunshi and Mr Raguvanash Prasad Singh objected to the calling attention motion being used by the member to "glorify'' the Minister instead of eliciting specific clarifications on the matter under discussion. They sought a full-fledged discussion on the issue next week.

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