The government said it received 'multiple' expressions of interest (EOIs) without naming them, with mining major Vedanta confirming it was one.
Covid-19 pandemic effect on the economy has left very little scope for the Narendra Modi government to further delay the privatisation of the PSUs like Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL).
After four extensions, the government last week finally closed the first step in the process to privatise oil marketer Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited also called the BPCL.
However the response to the bidding has been very discouraging as big players like Reliance, Total, Aramco or BP remained away from it.
The government said it received 'multiple' expressions of interest (EOIs) without naming them, with mining major Vedanta confirming it was one.
The oil refining and marketing major, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is a revenue churner for the government rather than a drain on its finances.
From the outset, the government has said that it would sell its 53 per cent stake in BPCL only to a private player.
Government has already started to disinvest leading public sector undertakings including Indian Oil, NTPC, Power Finance Corporation, Power Grid Corporation India Ltd. GAIL, NALCO, Bharat Electronic Limited, BPCL, and many more.
Sources say that the government can reduce its stakes in the following companies by 51 per cent. Earlier the government privatize some PSUs also.
By the sale of BPCL the government is expecting to earn something around Rs.40,000 crore which would help it to do something about its disinvestment target of Rs.2,10,000 crore, or about 7 per cent of its total projected revenues for 2020-21.
Speaking to industry leaders on Monday, the finance minister, Niramala Sitharaman, promised to accelerate privatization of state-owned firms in the coming days.
The government needs the private sector to revive the disinvestment momentum. In terms of collections, 2017-18 was the big year, with proceeds crossing Rs.1,00,000 crore for the first time. Collections reduced in the following two years and this year the condition seems bad.
Other than BPCL, there are 19 more PSUs, or parts of them, for which the government has given in-principle approval for disinvestment. This includes businesses like Container Corporation of India, Bharat Earth Movers and Shipping Corporation of India. None, though, match up to BPCL, India’s second-largest PSU by revenues in 2018-19.
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 "Government all set to disinvest BPCL; here's what it means")
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