After Covid induced setbacks, disinvestment of public sector units is back on track. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will also host a number of transactions by March-end, says Secretary of DIPAM, Tuhin Kanta Pandey.

“COVID actually hit us very badly… It is much easier to do a market transaction, much more difficult to do a strategic sale where the bidders will actually take control of the company and the due diligence process is extremely rigorous. There were controls on travel, gradually they have been lifted, our disinvestment is back on track,” he said.

In a virtual CII annual session, he also noted that “we intend to do Air India privatisation, BPCL privatisation, Shipping Corp of India, Pawan Hans, BEML and Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd this year.”

Earlier, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her 2021-22 Budget speech, had announced a big-ticket privatisation agenda, including privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company. “We propose to take up the privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company in the year 2021-22. This would require legislative amendments?” she had said.