Mumbai: Amid strong optimization growth expected for the new Budget session which is going to be announced in February, the most crucial and vital sector which could anticipate upcoming strategic capital augment is the own fields of government, i.e Public Sectors Undertakings that are strongly progressing towards Make in India initiative and profit gains with the ideology of indigenization.
PSUs on strong verge amid new opportunities:
Oil PSUs like HPCL, Oil India, ONGC and BPCL have estimated to get around their Rs 30,000 crore remaining capital expenditure which was spent in the LNG distribution process. While in the first seven months of FY 26 they achieved around 54% of their Rs 1.32 lakh crore annual capex target, strongly driven by exploration, refinery expansion, and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Oil PSUs have focused to uplift their dividend payouts with an approximate analysis of Rs 74,000 crore which is double of the past dividend payments.
However, in a strong emphasis of analysis, the past five years data have shown that fuel-related PSUs have accounted for 42% of the total dividends the government has received since the 2020-21 financial year. The government is further considering to reduce its stake in PSUs from the current mandatory 51% to 26% with a transfer of administrative control to private ones.
Further in Budget 2025-26, the government has revised the capital expenditure estimate to Rs 10.18 lakh crore from the previous of Rs 11 lakh crore and aims to gain higher dividends from the state-run companies to be estimated around Rs 69,000 crore.
The Budget has further focused to reduce the government’s stake in PSUs to 26% to facilitate deeper disinvestment. In terms of Power sector PSUs, the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have witnessed a significant increase from Rs 102.22 billion in 2023-24 to Rs 265.4 billion where most of the Power sector PSUs like NTPC, Coal India Ltd, NHPC, Power Grid, SJVN Ltd, NLC India and Power Finance Corporation.