To meet the annual fiscal deficit target, Government of India has sold its 2.5% stake in Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T). By selling the stake in L&T, the government has raised more than ₹40 billion. The development was announced to the media on Wednesday.
Neeraj Gupta, who is the top bureaucrat looking after government stake sales confirmed the news and said that the stakes were sold through block deals in the stock market. The stake was held by the state-owned Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI). SUUTI owned a 6.68 percent stake in engineering and construction group Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) till the end of March.
The government is aiming to raise ₹725 billion through the sale of partial government stakes in state-run and private firms during the end of March 2018. The selling of the stakes will contribute to meet the government’s fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of the gross domestic product.