Govt aims to garner Rs 1.5 lakh cr via asset sale, dividends

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Government aims to tap various assets to raise an estimated Rs 1.52 lakh crore (over USD 30 billion) in the next fiscal, nearly half of which could come from telecom spectrum sale and disinvestment in PSUs.

The targetted proceeds worth Rs 1,51,717 crore from the government's physical and capital assets would account for more than one-tenth of its total revenue receipts in 2012-13.

This would be much higher than the amount garnered by levying even an increased service tax of 12 per cent during the year.

As per the budget estimates for the fiscal 2012-13, the government is looking to raise Rs 30,000 crore through part-sale of its stake in various public sector companies. Additionally, over Rs 27,000 crore is expected to come through dividend payments from PSUs.

It is also expecting nearly Rs 23,000 crore in form of dividend from RBI and various nationalised banks and financial institutions, taking its total dividend estimate for 2012-13 to over Rs 50,000 crore.

Besides, the government is looking at total proceeds of over Rs 58,000 crore from its various telecom assets, including Rs 40,000 crore from sale of spectrum next year.

From its energy assets also, the government is targeting funds worth over Rs 13,300 crore, most of which would come in form of royalty on offshore petroleaum assets.

In its budget for 2012-13, the government has estimated total receipts of nearly Rs 14.9 lakh crore, out of which about Rs 7.7 lakh crore would come from tax revenues, close to Rs 1.64 lakh crore from non-tax revenues and about Rs 5.55 lakh crore as capital receipts.

The disinvestment proceeds are part of capital receipts, while gains from spectrum sale and other asset-related revenue realisation are part of non-tax revenues.

The projected tax revenues include about Rs 3.73 lakh crore as corporate tax, Rs 1.95 lakh crore as income tax and Rs 1.24 lakh crore service taxes, among others.

In this year's budget, the government has proposed to hike the service tax from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.

For the current fiscal ending this month, the government had estimated non-tax revenue worth Rs 13,000 crore and Rs 1,600 crore from auction of telecommunication spectrum and FM phase III, respectively.

While these auctions did not materialise this year, the government managed higher-than-estimated receipts in form of dividend from PSUs.

In addition to Rs 40,000 crore from spectrum sale next year, the government is targetting more than Rs 18,200 crore of revenue from other communication services as well in 2012-13.

This would include licence fees from telecom operators, receipts on account of spectrum usage charges and auction of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum currently in use by Central PSUs, receipts from spectrum held in excess of 6.2 MHz and receipts from auction of spectrum, including spectrum to be vacated by 122 licences, in view of a Supreme Court order.

In 2011-12, the government had also targetted Rs 40,000 crore as disinvestment proceeds, but could manage only about Rs 13,895 crore from part-sale of stake in PSUs.

For the next fiscal, the government is targetting Rs 30,000 crore from disinvestment, while another Rs 25,000 crore could be realised in the fiscal 2013-14.

The government has said that the dividend receipts from PSUs could also be higher next fiscal, as economy is projected to grow at higher rate.