Railways disinvestment: RITES may be the first one to get listed during the current fiscal

New Delhi: RITES may be the first one to get listed during the current financial year among the planned disinvestment of Railways public sector undertakings.

Railway is facing multiple issues over the lising of other  PSUs like IRCON, IRFC and IRCTC. Sources told Zee News that the issues related to other 3 mentioned PSUs is unlikely to be resolved during this FY 2017-18.

For Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), there is an issue of deferred tax liability of Rs 65 billion that the railway ministry wants to sort out.

Meanwhile, IRFC only does leasing. Its tax liability is far less than the depreciation it earns. As a result, the tax liability gets booked at 55%, where the maximum tax it pays is 34% .

Railways is in talks with the ministry of corporate affairs to sort out the issue of IRFC

While listing of Ircon is on track, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) is currently kept on hold.

If Rites gets listed, the engineering consultancy arm of railways will become only the second railway subsidiary to get listed on a stock exchange after Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR).

Government wants to raise at least Rs 500 crore from the listing of RITES alone. It is likely to be followed by divestment in another railway subsidiary Ircon International.