Wall Street banks have had enough of heavy work for puny paychecks on Indian government share sales – at least when it comes to smaller or difficult deals.

That choosiness comes at a bad time for India, which may struggle to hit its goal of raising nearly US$ 6 billion from share sales in state companies by the end of March with investor demand for new shares expected to remain modest.

Just three banks, all local, bid to run a roughly US$ 300 million stake sale in National Aluminium Co Ltd, said bankers with direct knowledge of the matter.