Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has indicated that government companies Air India and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) will be disinvested soon. The condition of Air India is poor, so the government will not benefit much from it, but by selling a part of the profit-making Bharat Petroleum, the government can get a hefty amount of Rs 60,000 crore.
The Finance Minister said on Saturday that the disinvestment of the two companies would be completed by March 2020. Significantly, the government has set a target of achieving Rs 1.05 lakh crore from disinvestment in this financial year. So with the sale of BPCL, it will get about 60 per cent of this target alone.
The government holds 53.29 percent stake in BPCL and the market capitalization of this company is above Rs 1 lakh crore. The government will sell its entire stake and according to the current market capitalization, it can get around 60 thousand crore rupees.
On the other hand, the condition of Air India is poor and its buyers are not being found. The government has 100 per cent stake in it and the government wants to sell its entire stake in it somehow by acquiring its buyer. The government had also tried to sell its stake in Air India last year, but had to postpone it due to lack of buyers. Air India has a debt of about Rs 58,000 crore.
Apart from this, the government is also preparing to sell its stake in Shipping Corp of India (SCI), THDC India Ltd and North Eastern Electric Power Corp Ltd. There is a plan to sell 30 per cent stake in Container Corporation of India.
BPCL had a profit of Rs 7,132 crore
On September 30, a core team of secretaries formed on disinvestment had approved the sale of Bharat Petroleum stake. BPCL is a profitable company, so big international companies like Saudi Aramco, Rosneft, Kuwait Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total SA and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company can bid to buy its stake. BPCL had a profit of Rs 7,132 crore in the financial year 2018-19.
