CCD meet deferred for fourth time amid rows

NEW DELHI: A crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD), scheduled for Thursday to decide on divestment of oil PSUs HPCL and BPCL, has been deferred once again with the issue mired in a clash of corporate interests and political personalities.
Deferred for the fourth time in a row, the meeting of CCD is now likely to be held on September 7 as Defence Minister George Fernandes is believed to have insisted on his presence though he is not a member of the high powered committee, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Fernandes is currently abroad.
Sources close to the disinvestment process said that Fernandes wrote to Vajpayee expressing his desire to be present at the meeting for deciding on quantum and modalities of sale of stake in Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.
Besides differences within the members of the Union Cabinet on privatisation of the two oil PSUs, certain corporate houses are also understood to be lobbying hard for keeping their rivals away from bidding for HPCL and BPCL.
When contacted, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, who is leaving for Brazil on Friday, said the meeting was scheduled for Thursday and "now it is postponed. It is not because of me. I am available tomorrow but the meeting is not taking place for some other reasons."
Naik and Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie have been locking horns over the privatisation of the two oil PSUs with the former insisting that the two corporations be first allowed to make initial public offering of equity shares to fund their ongoing projects.
However, Shourie has insisted that such a process could erode the value of HPCL and BPCL shares and it should not preceed privatisation of the two corporations.
Besides, the Disinvestment Ministry has also proposed to keep away all the PSUs from participating in the disinvestment process, which is once again a bone of contention with Naik favouring permission to ONGC and other PSU under his charge to bid for BPCL and HPCL.
The CCD in February had decided to bar only Indian Oil from bidding for BPCL and HPCL, after the state-run refiner acquired controlling stake in IBP.
Asked if Fernandes had written to PM, Naik said, "I am not aware of any letter being written."
Disinvestment Ministry is pushing for sale of 36 per cent stake in BPCL and 26 per cent equity in HPCL to a strategic partner.
Sources said Naik is likely to make a presentation on issues like completion of capacity addition projects before strategic sale of BPCL and HPCL.
The Petroleum Ministry has already moved a cabinet note on BPCL''s IPO of 50 million shares.