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CCD meet may be put off yet again

The Cabinet Committee on Divestment, which is rescheduled to meet on September 7, is likely to be postponed yet again in the wake of Defence Minister George Fernandes opposing the privatisation of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation on security concerns.

Highly placed sources in the government admitted that with the serious differences between Divestment Minister Arun Shourie and Petroleum Minister Ram Naik spilling over to the defence minister, the big-ticket divestment of the oil majors has suffered a major setback.

A few of the ministers have pitched the stakes so high that an intense political and corporate pressure will continue to be mounted within the government and inside the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar.

According to sources, ''personally'', Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani appreciates and understands the point of view of Shourie. But with Fernandes joining the issue, both Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani would weigh the pros and cons of speeding up with the divestment programme.

The CCD, originally slated for Thursday was postponed to September 7.

Sources said that the divestment of the big-time public sector units is likely to be put on the backburner also because the government has entered the ''election mode'' and the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) combine would like to give a political handle to the Opposition parties.

They said that the petroleum ministry's stand of going in for an initial public offering instead of a strategic sale defies logic since the four oil companies -- BPCL, HPCL, Indian Oil Corporation and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation -- are flush with reserves exceeding Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion). In fact, the petroleum ministry was sitting over a long pending proposal of one of the oil companies for an IPO.

Ironically, intra-ministry and inter-party differences widened even after the CCD had cleared the strategic sale of HPCL and BPCL in Februrary this year. The divestment ministry had even invited expressions of interest for appointment of advisors in April.

These EOIs are still lying sealed in lockers.

After the sale of Maruti Udyog Ltd and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the divestment ministry had become ambitious setting a big target of Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion).

All this seems a remote possibility if the privatisation programme continues to be mired in controversies.

UNI

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