CCD may discuss HPCL, BPCL sell-off at next meeting

NEW DELHI: The Disinvestment Ministry on Friday said it had sought a meeting next week of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) which may discuss sale of government equity in oil marketing majors HPCL and BPCL.
Disinvestment Secretary Pradip Baijal said that his ministry had approached the cabinet secretariat for a possbile meeting next week and which may also discuss the case of HPCL and BPCL.
Asked whether Indian companies would be debarred from bidding for stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Baijal said on the sidelines of a FICCI seminar that he was not aware of any such move.
The government had earlier this week announced that it would disinvest its stake in HPCL through the strategic route while in the case of BPCL it would adopt the IPO route. However, the quantum of stake to be offloaded in HPCL is yet to be fixed.
On the issue of restarting the stalled due diligence process for disinvestment of aluminium major Nalco, Baijal said that he was hopeful of starting the plant visits in a reasonable time period.
Baijal said Nalco would not fall within the purview of natural asset companies for which the Disinvestment Department and Finance Ministry are to finalise the guidelines.
"In my understanding, Nalco is not a natural asset company. However we have to decide on the matter", he said.
He added that companies like Kudremukh Iron Ore Company (KIOCL), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) would be treated as natural asset companies.