NEW DELHI: Exding confidence that the central government will “walk the talk” on divestment, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Finance Ministry Krishnamurthy Subramanian on Saturday said that the target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore for 2021-22 is “eminently achievable” led by the privatisation of BPCL and listing of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). “The BPCL privatisation will easily fetch Rs 75,000 crore to Rs 80,000 crore while the LIC listing will raise about Rs 1 lakh crore,” he said at the third anniversary event of Jana Small Finance Bank, adding that work had begun on these in the current fiscal and will be completed in the new fiscal.
The government is selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL in the nation’s biggest privatisation till date. Vedanta Group and private equity firms Apollo Global and I Squared Capital’s Indian unit Think Gas have put in an expression of interest f o r buy ing the Centre’s stake. As for LIC listing, the government has already got amendments in the LIC Act passed through Finance Bill 2021 in Parliament earlier this week. Subramanian furter said that the country requires growth at this juncture as it aspires to increase its dominance and self- reliance in the global economy.
He expressed confidence that India’s economic growth will go back to the 7 to 7.5 per cent trajectory in coming years with higher gross fixed capital formation and productivity measures bearing fruit. While it is estimated that GDP growth will be in double digits in 2021-22, the CEA said he is optimistic that from 2022- 23, the economy will expand at about 6 per cent to 6.5 per cent and hit the upward trend and go to 7 per cent to 7.5 per cent. “I don’t foresee the possibility of stagflation,” he stressed. He also said that the country needs a lot more banks, citing the case of United States, which has one third of India’s population but there are about 25,000 to 30,000 banks.