NEW DELHI: The government has pegged its target for disinvestment for FY 2021-22 at Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

A major announcement made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was that the government will privatise two public sector banks other than IDBI Bank. One general insurance company will also be privatised in the coming fiscal, she said.

Presenting the Union Budget for FY22, Sitharaman also exuded confidence that all the announced privatisation decisions will be completed in the next fiscal, despite the massive delay so far and the impact of the pandemic.

Thereby, she assured that the much delayed disinvestment processes of Air India and BPCL among others would be completed in the upcoming fiscal.

She also said that legislative amendments required for LIC IPO would be brought in 2021-22.

The disinvestment target for the current fiscal is Rs 2.10 lakh crore while the revenue collected through disinvestment is only Rs 19,499 crore.

Centre’s disinvestment process has been severely impacted both by pandemic along with lack of interest among market players even before the pandemic.

Sitharaman also said that NITI Aayog has been asked to work on next list of central public sector companies for strategic disinvestment.

To monetise lands owned by CPSEs, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be developed and an Asset Monetisation Pipeline will also be launched.