'Centre to miss divestment targets by more than half'

The Indian government will struggle to raise even half the proceeds it had targeted from planned sales of state-run firms this year and will miss divestment targets for the fifth straight year, people with knowledge said, as elections shift government priorities.

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The government may fall short of its divestment goal by ₹30,000 crore in 2023-24, two people from the government told Reuters. The central government had targeted v51,000 crore from divestment proceeds for the current fiscal year that ends March, 2024.

In 2023-24, about ₹30,000 crore of the ₹51,000 crore target was expected through stake sales in IDBI Bank and the privatisation of state-owned NMDC Steel.

However, delays in vetting of interested buyers for IDBI by the Reserve Bank of India, the banking regulator, have stretched the sale timeline beyond the 2024 elections.