Air India, Concor, BPCL Likely To Be Privatised By March 2020, As Government Plans To Sell Its Stake

The Narendra Modi led central government is planning to sell its stakes in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) and Air India by March 2020, claims a Reuters report.

The government hopes to raise Rs 60,000 crore from these sales to meet the divestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore it has set in the current financial year.

The government prefers to sell these public sector units to private local and foreign firms after the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) expressed reservations over Finance Ministry’s decision to sell stakes of one public unit to another.

This was observed in case of ONGC buying Hindustan Petroleum. The PMO has thus directed that a government company cannot be sold to another government entity in a bid to infuse privatisation.

It was reported a few days ago that the Union government is seriously exploring the option of privatising the country’s second-largest public sector refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and is open to selling it to a global oil and gas major.

Global energy majors like Shell, Total, Aramco have shown interest in picking up government’s stakes in BPCL.