The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the disinvestment of 10 percent paid up equity capital of Coal India.
Advertisement
The decisions taken by the government today such as the disinvestment in Coal India will help in reviving the economy and boosting investors’ sentiment, industry body CII said.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will decide the timing of the stake sale in CIL, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, said after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The divestment could raise as much as 200 billion Indian rupees ($3.02 billion), he said.
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. However, this would be less than the ₹22,557 crore mopped up by the government when it had sold 10 per cent stake in CIL last time in January 2015.
The government has budgeted to raise Rs 69,500 crore through disinvestment in the current fiscal. CIL workers’ unions, however, have been opposing the stake sale in the national miner. “Initial public offering of Cochin Shipyard is a major first step towards unlocking the port sector”, he added.
As per the proposal from the disinvestment department, the authorised capital of CIL stands at Rs.8,904.18 crore, which comprises of Rs.904.18 crore non-cumulative 10 percent redeemable preference shares and Rs.8,000 crore equity shares.
Advertisement
The government official also said that foreign investors have raised concerns over the environmental issues of the company. There would be no financial outgo from the government on account of the issue of shares.
