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Divestment ministry for selling HPCL, BPCL at one go

Gaurav Raghuvanshi in New Delhi

The ministry of divestment has proposed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd should be taken up for strategic sale simultaneously and passed on to private hands in the next 6-8 months.

A time-table for divestment to commit the government to time-bound achievement of major landmarks, including the two petroleum companies, would be taken up at the Cabinet Committee on Divestment meeting on Saturday evening.

"We have proposed the strategic sale of BPCL and HPCL be taken up together by appointment of advisers and inviting expression of interest within the next couple of weeks. The progress in the sell-off would, however, depend on the CCD," a top divestment official said.

The government plans to complete the sell-off in blue-chip public sector companies, including BPCL, HPCL, National Aluminium Company Ltd, Shipping Corporation of India and Engineers India Ltd, in the next 6-8 months to generate Rs 23,500 crore (Rs 235 billion).

The divestment ministry would seek approval of the timetable with the concurrence of administrative ministries, the official said.

The previous meeting of the ministry had decided to bind the government to a timetable following the success of a similar exercise in the past year, he added.

The proposed deadlines set for different companies included completion of strategic sale of HPCL and BPCL by March or April 2003, Nalco by May and National Fertiliser Corporation by August, the official said.

Other agenda items include finalisation of transaction documents ahead of invitation of price bids for the government's 51 per cent stake in the Shipping Corporation of India and Engineers India Ltd and approval of the sale of Ranjit hotel in Delhi to Umesh Sarraf-promoted Unison hotels based on the bids already received.

The CCD is also expected to take up the sale of the remaining India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) properties and invite EoIs for Manganese Ore India Ltd. These issues could not be taken up at the previous meeting due to the absence of B K Tripathi, minister of state for steel.

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