All necessary steps to be taken to meet public shareholding norms of 25% for all listed PSUs

Government to start raising a part of its Gross Borrowing Programme in External Markets

New coins of One, Two, Five, Ten & Twenty Rupees easily identifiable to visually impaired to be made available for public use shortly

For bringing better public ownership of the PSUs and also bring greater commercial and market orientation of the listed PSUs, the Government proposes to take all necessary steps to meet public shareholding norms of 25% for all listed PSUs and raise the foreign shareholding limits to maximum permissible sector limits for all PSU companies which are part of Emerging Market Index. This was stated by the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20 in Parliament today.

She also informed that a new series of coins of One Rupee, Two Rupees, Five Rupees, Ten Rupees and Twenty Rupees, easily identifiable to the visually impaired, were released by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 7th March, 2019. These new coins will be made available for public use shortly.

India’s Sovereign External debt to GDP is among the lowest globally at less than 5%. The Government would start raising a part of its Gross Borrowing Programme in external markets in external currencies. This will also have beneficial impact on demand situation for the Government securities in domestic market, said the Union Finance Minister while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20 in Parliament today. 

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DSM/RM/BB/RJ/SK/SK

Public shareholding norms for listed PSUs to be enforced; government to raise part of gross borrowing in external markets. The Government will take all necessary steps to achieve public shareholding norms of twenty-five percent for listed PSUs and raise foreign shareholding to maximum permissible sectoral limits for PSU companies in the Emerging Market Index; it will also begin raising a portion of its gross borrowing programme in external markets in external currencies.