Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently reiterated that the 'government has no business being in business'. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is taking out all the stops in its efforts to help realise PM Modi's call with a slew of strategic divestments including that of ailing airline Air India, BPCL, BEML, etc.

To get a status check as well as to understand what further divestments are being planned, CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh spoke to DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey.

Divestment of Tata Communications

“The government wants to exit completely from the Tata Communications Group i.e. our stake of 26.12% and that is in two parts. One is that we are coming out with an offer for sale (OFS) today and tomorrow with 16.12% offering including the green shoe. Based on the price discovery, we shall be selling the rest of the stake to the Tata Group which is 10%,” Pandey said.

Divestment of BSNL and MTNL assets

He said, “BSNL, MTNL is already under the package. A package has been approved which includes a number of things. There was VRS, there was also an issue of 4G spectrum, and so on and so forth, and one of the consideration was that they will also raise money through monetization of their properties and BSNL, MTNL properties – there are several properties which have been identified and going forward they will be going for bidding. So, it will be a continuous process depending upon the properties which are identified and then due diligence process is done on them, they will be brought to the market to a bidding process. I don’t think we will be able to complete in FY21-FY22 because there are a large number of properties, but there will be substantial number of assets which will be brought to be bidding because that is the amount they would have to raise and use that money to actually go with the plan which has been approved by the cabinet.”

Divestment of LIC

“LIC is not getting into a joint stock company. It will remain an LIC under a statutory corporation much like the State Bank of India (SBI). The law is being enabled, LIC Act is being amended through various amendment provisions in the Finance Bill itself. The law is yet to be passed, but the proposals are there in the Finance Bill which will enable all that needs to be done for LIC to be brought to the market in-line with the SEBI norms,” he said.

Divestment timeline of BPCL and Air India

“BPCL, we are looking at the second quarter. For Air India, we are targeting it at first quarter, but there has to be equal cooperation from the prospective bidders as well,” he said.

Divestment of SAIL, Neelachal Ispat, and CONCOR

He said, “SAIL units are in advanced stages. Neelachal Ispat Nigam (NINL) EoI is already and the last date is March 29. CONCOR divestment will not be possible in first quarter because we are yet to come out with an EoI. However, there is a great deal of progress. The railways are quite advanced in terms of finalizing their land lease policy which was indeed an important point consideration before we come out with an EoI. The EoI is ready and as soon as the policy is cleared, we will have a clarity to the bidders and therefore we will be able to come out with an EoI very soon. Thereafter it will move fast.”

For full interview, watch the video.

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)