India steps up push to boost revenue with Axis stake sale India's government is making an increasingly urgent push to avoid missing a self-imposed fiscal deficit target with fresh plans to sell a Rs58bn ($940m) stake in Axis Bank, the country's third-largest lender by assets. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's administration hopes to sell half of the 21 per cent stake it retains in Axis, according to two people familiar with the matter, which it has held since the private-sector bank was spun out of state-owned investment group Unit Trust of India in the mid-1990s. It is the latest in a series of mooted divestments and other measures designed to boost revenue as Palaniappan Chidambaram, the finance minister, battles to keep India's deficit below 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product this fiscal year. Meeting its target has become a crucial test of the government's credibility both with international investors and Indian voters, as Mr Singh's Congress-led government faces possible defeat in forthcoming national elections against opposition leader Narendra Modi. Any failure to meet the goal also could have wide-ranging implications for foreign holders of Indian debt, given threats from international rating agencies that the nation's sovereign rating may be downgraded to junk status if the target is breached. The Axis sale is set to happen within the next two weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter. A range of banks including Citi and JPMorgan have been hired to manage the process. Axis, Citigroup and JPMorgan all declined to comment. Another person familiar with the situation said, however, that weak market demand or unexpected political disagreements could yet derail the sale: "They [the government] want to do it, but whether it will happen, we'll just have to see." India's fundraising push included an unexpectedly generous $3bn dividend announced last week from mining company Coal India, which is roughly 90 per cent state-owned, providing a windfall for the finance ministry. Mr Singh's administration is also attempting to sell various other assets, including another slice of its holding in Coal India as part of an ambitious goal to divest Rs400bn ($6.5bn) of state assets this fiscal year. Residual government stakes in both Hindustan Zinc and Bharat Aluminium are also likely to be sold off, potentially raising as much as $3.5bn. The two companies are majority owned by Vedanta. The UK-listed resources group is eventually likely to buy the government's remaining shares, but the sale itself has been delayed for years by wrangling over valuations. A series of record highs for the stock market in recent months have raised hopes in New Delhi that Mr Chidambaram may finally be able to attract investors for the various stakes. Asia's third-largest economy burnt through 94 per cent of its full-year target during the first eight months of the year, raising pressure to generate fresh funds and leaving little room for manoeuvre before the end of the fiscal year in April. Mr Chidambaram last week reiterated his "unflinching commitment" to fiscal discipline, but many analysts remain sceptical. "The government is clearly using every trick in the book - and some that aren't in the book - to avoid crossing the 4.8 per cent red line," said Surjit Bhalla, chairman of Oxus Investments, a New Delhi-based financial group. Whatever is legal, he [Mr Chidambaram] is doing it . . . but these are clearly artificial measures, because India's deficit is, in reality, obviously more than 4.8 per cent. They are just transferring the problem to next year. Axis shares were up nearly 2 per cent mid-afternoon on Tuesday in Mumbai.