Arun Shourie, Union Minister for Divestment, on Tuesday said that the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment would discuss the sell-off modalities of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.
Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Shourie said that the next CCD meet, which would be held at the prime minister's convenience, would decide on the issues of appointment of global advisors for HPCL and the extent of equity dilution for BPCL through an initial public offering.
Government sources said that the formal agenda note for the next CCD meeting is yet to be circulated among different ministers, but the meeting has been tentatively scheduled on December 27.
The government had decided that the HPCL would be divested through a strategic partner while the other oil PSU, BPCL, would be privatised by issuing additional shares in the market.
Shourie, who was in the city to attend a meeting at the Indian Chamber of Commerce on North-East issues, said that the divestment ministry had already circulated its views on HPCL and BPCL divestment to the concerned administrative ministry, adding that the next CCD meet would deliberate on these.
Asked about his ministry's views on the extent of equity dilution in both the oil PSUs, Shourie declined to say anything in this regard.
However, in the case of HPCL, he said that since the government was already holding 51 per cent, it would be meaningless to bring it down to 49 per cent as no partner would like to acquire control with two per cent equity.
The other option was to bring government equity down to 26 per cent in HPCL, Shourie said.
Another crucial issue regarding HPCL divestment is the Bathinda refinery which had been declared unviable by the Working Group on Petroleum in the Tenth Five-Year Plan, Shourie said.
He said that a decision would have to be taken whether this refinery should be hived off before the sell-off to fetch better prices.
Shourie said that the same was true for BPCL, where the government's equity holding stands at 60 per cent.
The working group also declared the Bina refinery of the PSU as unviable in the Tenth Plan, the minister said adding that a similar decision would have to be taken before finalising BPCL sell-off.
Asked about the status of Balmer Lawrie divestment, Shourie said that the matter had been referred to CCD and to be taken up at its next meeting.
The other issues to be taken up at the CCD also included matters like allowing PSUs to bid for HPCL and BPCL.
Shourie is of the view that if PSUs were allowed to bid for the two oil companies, then bid prices of the private parties would increase.
On the controversy surrounding the sale of Centaur property of Hotel Corporation of India, the minister said that the matter had been referred to the law ministry which is looking into it.
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