Centre aims to privatise BPCL in Q1

The government is targeting to conclude the privatisation of BPCL in the first quarter of next fiscal year (Q1FY22), said Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey (pictured) on Thursday.

The disinvestment process is at the due diligence stage, Pandey said at the Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund's annual investment conclave Voyage. Under this stage, bids are being evaluated after which a share purchase agreement would be signed with the selected bidder

The government has received three preliminary bids to buy controlling stake (52.98 per cent stake) in the country’s second-largest fuel retailer. Vedanta is one of them.

Structural reforms needed

Pandey said the Covid-19 crisis has shown that for the Indian economy to catapult to a high growth path, structural reforms are necessary in the medium term. And the new privatisation policy should be seen as that.

“This policy is for growth of India, growth of employment and growth of enterprises.”

The policy is not for fiscal management, he said, but should be conceived as how PSUS together with private sector companies grow to really become Aatmanirbhar.

One PSU sale to another not reform

In some cases, consolidation among PSUS may be necessary, but if one PSU is sold to another, it cannot be treated as a reform. A reform is only when the government cedes control of the PSU, he said.