Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said that the government was hopeful of raising Rs.40,000 crore from stake sales in public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the financial year beginning April 1, 2013. "I hope to collect Rs.40,000 crore from disinvestment next year. The first disinvestment will start in April," said Mr. Chiadambaram while answering questions on the Union Budget on Google hangouts, a first for the Finance Minister. Answering a question from industrialist Anand Mahindra, Chidambaram said he was hopeful of raising another Rs.14,000 crore from the sale of the government's residual stake in some companies. In total, the government expects to raise Rs.54,000 crore from the sale of stake in companies during the financial year 2013-14. In the current financial year that ends March 31, the government is expected to raise around Rs.24,000 crore from disinvestment against the budgetary target of Rs.30,000 crore. Chidambaram said his main focus in the national budget was to stabilise the macro-economic situation and push forward the growth. "We are trying to stabilise our economy and get the growth engine started," he said. He said the world economy was passing through a difficult phase and nobody was talking about "big bang". "There is no country in the world that I know is talking about a big bang. Please remember the Eurozone is in recession - Germany has contracted, UK has contracted in the last quarter... there is no big bang anywhere in the world," he said. Source: iGovernment.in
