Will the Government's Disinvestment Trick Work?

The government in its latest Union Budget had proposed that it will raise Rs 30,000 crore in the next financial year through disinvestment. Now, given the fiasco it has experienced this financial year where it raised nowhere near the target, what are the chances it will do better next year? Well, the way the government has been going about disinvestment is probably not the best way of going about it. I might be wrong but most of the activity seems to be concentrated near the end of the financial year. There can always be a year-long timetable. The markets may or may not be in a good mood during a short period. Second, is the way issue pricing is done and the role of merchant bankers. Clearly, this set of people can't shed the greed that used to come into pricing even till some years back. When you don't have an euphoric upturn in the market and people are looking for value, aggressive pricing is going to backfire. Next, UPA-II has allies and opposition who just about oppose everything as if there were programmed to do so. Opposing disinvestment will come naturally to them. The ruling party itself has enough people who have not been able to move ahead of 70's and 80's. But the mostt important part of disinvestment is how its proceeds are used. If they are to be used to support wasteful and inefficient expenditures, then is disinvestment such a good idea? I don't think so.