The government has been able to mobilise Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 30-35 billion) by way of divestment during the first nine months of the current financial year, Divestment Minister, Arun Shourie, said on Tuesday.
The minister told reporters that the delay of three months over the Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation sell-off had slowed the process of divestment.
Asked whether the government would be able to reach the target of Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) from divestment in the current financial year, Shourie sounded less hopeful, but added that still three more months were left in the current year.
About the creation of a separate fund from divestments proceeds for re-training of workers as demanded by SCOPE (Standing Committee on Public Sector Enterprises), Shourie asked: "where is the money?"
He said: "Money would have to be allotted for providing drinking water, creation of new assets and retirement of public debt."
"How can you play around with this meagre amount," the minister wondered.
He also criticised SCOPE by saying that the apex body was basically a "trade union of managers who had ruined the public sector units."
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