Mop-up under ‘Miscellaneous Capital Receipts’ (MCR) crossed more than 23 per cent of the budget estimates in just little over two months of FY27 mainly because of good earnings from disinvestment. Important to note that earnings from disinvestment in two months exceeded those during full fiscal of FY25 and nearly 72 per cent of full fiscal of FY16.Union Budget has pegged MCR at ₹80,000 crore. According to the budget document, these include receipts on account of management of equity investments and public assets through various mechanisms. Put simply, MCR primarily includes disinvestment (sale of minority share holdings and strategic disinvestment) and asset monetisation.Data from DIPAM shows, government offloaded parts of its stake in three CPSE (Central Public Sector Enterprises) — Central Bank, Coal India and NHPC and mobilised ₹12,165 crore. At the same time, revenue from asset monetization (InvIT) was over ₹6300 crore. These two taken together gave over ₹18,000 crore to the central exchequer and it is 23.16 per cent of full year estimates under ‘miscellaneous capital receipts.’This development is important as receipts from taxes are expected to be lower, while revenue expenditure (such as subsidy on food and fertiliser) is expected to shoot up mainly on account of West Asia war. In fact, first signal of stress on central finances was visible, when fiscal deficit in value term surged nearly 94 per cent in April as compared to corresponding month of last fiscal. As a percentage of BE, fiscal deficit was over 21 per cent as compared to 11 per cent.Earlier, when asked about the raising the MCR to ₹80,000 crore in FY 27 BE from BY26 RE of ₹33,817 crore and whether such a higher estimate means monetisation of equities or monetisation of assets, Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur had said: “It will be more of assets monetisation as a strong pipeline was announced.”Budget documents do not use the word ‘disinvestment,’ but it is still an important tool for MCR. As on date, there are 68 CPSEs listed on stock exchanges. The value of government shareholding in these companies is over ₹23.66 lakh crore. Apart from these, 16 public financial institutions (banks and insurance companies) are also listed and the value of government shareholding in these institutions is over ₹15 lakh crore.These data give enough headroom for the government to go for minority stake sale and earn a significant amount of money. In many companies, the government needs to bring down its stake to achieve the norm of Minimum Public Shareholding of 25 per cent in various CPSEs and public financial institutions. This will necessitate further OFS of CPSEs in this month and in the next fiscal year.Officials in the Finance Ministry have already made it clear that a ‘surprise’ minority stake sale, rather than any big-bang disinvestment, is the government’s well-thought-out strategy to generate more revenue. “We will continue with selling a part of our stake in CPSEs,” the official said while refusing to name the CPSE or Public Financial Institution next in line or how many will be in the list for the current fiscal. “Announcing the name much in advance will have an impact on the valuation,” the official added.Published on June 8, 2026