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Ministers to discuss selloff deadlock

Senior ministers are expected to try to ease differences over the country's stalled divestment programme in an informal meeting to be held before next week, a member of the central coalition said on Wednesday.

The privatisation programme hit a roadblock in September when the government postponed sales of stakes in two oil firms, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp for three months due to a cabinet rift.

Shambhu Srivastava, spokesman for Defence Minister George Fernandes's Samata Party, told Reuters the ministers were expected to meet ahead of the winter session of parliament beginning on Monday to help present a united face on the issue.

"It (the meeting) is most likely," Srivastava said. "Divestment is on track but there are finer nuances about the procedures. The nuances should be sorted out."

The meeting was expected to be convened by Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, he said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has vowed to press ahead with sales of stakes in state-run firms.

The Samata Party is a socialist group which believes the privatisation process must not lead to the emergence of private monopolies. It seeks higher transparency, checks and balances in the sell-off.

India has said it hopes to raise Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) through stake sales in state-run firms in the fiscal year ending March.

But the divestment ministry has said the government would fall short of the target after it delayed the HPCL and BPCL sales.

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