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IBP, VSNL price bid by Dec-end: CGD

A core group of secretaries on divestment recommended on Friday that price bids for privatisation of oil marketing PSU, IBP Co, be invited within 15 days and that of Videsh Sanchar Nigam within a month.

For this purpose, the CGD approved draft shareholders agreement for IBP which among other things included a three-year lock in period for 33.58 per cent equity being offered to a strategic partner, official sources said.

CGD's recommendations would now be placed before Cabinet Committee on Divestment, likely to be convened later this month, for final decision.

Reliance, IOC, Essar, Shell and Kuwait Petroleum are among the ten bidders in the fray for acquiring the profit making PSU, which has a market share of five per cent on the strength of its over 1500 retail outlets.

The committee is also understood to have asked the finance ministry to resolve the Rs 30-billion-tax issue on which the government has moved court against the verdict of tax tribunal in favour of VSNL as part of efforts to clear the last of the remaining issues for its privatisation.

Sources said finance ministry had taken the plea that license fees paid by the corporation over the last few years could not be shown as revenue.

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