Govt raises Rs 8,152 cr via NTPC bonus debenture sale to EPFO
4 May 2016 11:14 PM GMT
The government raised Rs 8,152 crore in 2015-16 by selling bonus debentures of NTPC to EPFO, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. Disinvestment in central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) is undertaken as per the extant disinvestment policy of the government, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
He said the government raised as much as Rs 23,997.29 crore in 2015-16 by diluting its stake in various CPSEs. "Further, the government has raised Rs 8,152 crore on account of sale of bonus debentures of NTPC to EPFO," Sinha said in the reply.
Besides, an additional amount of Rs 1,023 crore (approximately) was realised as buyback tax on account of buyback transactions undertaken by unlisted CPSEs during 2015-16, he added.
Buyback helps a company reduce equity by using idle cash and hence, provide better returns to shareholders. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has helped the exchequer garner Rs 4,500 crore through buyback of shares by Hindustan Aeronautics and Bharat Dynamics in March.
In the Budget 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will leverage the assets of CPSEs for generation of resources for investment in new projects.
The NITI Aayog will identify the CPSEs for strategic sale. "We will encourage CPSEs to divest individual assets like land, manufacturing units, etc to release their asset value for making investment in new projects," Jaitley had said.
Piyush Goyal to unveil CIL contract workers’ payment portal today
Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal will on Wednesday roll out Contract Labour Payment Management System, a portal of Coal India (CIL), to keep a tab on compliance of labour payment and other benefits to contract workers. The minister will also felicitate employees for their “path-breaking work” towards lighting up India in the last two years, the Coal Ministry said in a statement.
The Web portal is created for monitoring compliance of labour payment and other benefits to contract workers under the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970. It is an integrated framework for all subsidiaries of CIL. The in-house developed application will maintain a comprehensive database for all contract workers engaged by different contractors in CIL and all its subsidiaries.
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