The government will privatise state-run Engineers India Limited this fiscal with the divestment ministry withdrawing its reservations on selling the project consultancy firm following a decision on the sale of the government's equity in public sector oil units, HPCL and BPCL.
The decision, taken at the meeting of the Core Group of Divestment on Wednesday, would now be sent to Cabinet Committee on Divestment for ratification, sources said.
This, they said, would pave the way for inviting financial bids for sale of 51 per cent government equity in the next few weeks.
The CGD is also believed to have favoured allowing public sector companies like ONGC and BHEL to bid for Engineers India Ltd on the ground that the September 7 decision to bar PSUs from the divestment process would be difficult to implement retrospectively, government sources said.
It, however, decided to refer the issue of divestment in Balmer Lawrie to the Cabinet Committee on Divestment as the divestment ministry's proposal for its sale as a single entity was opposed by the ministries of finance and petroleum which wanted it to be segregated into separate business units and sold separately, they said.
Contrary to reports, the CGD did not initiate discussions on the divestment in HPCL and BPCL till the Attorney General gave his opinion on the legality of privatising the PSUs which were formed by an act of Parliament.
Sources said the petroleum ministry's proposal for stripping EIL of Rs 310 crore (Rs 3.10 billion) special dividend before sell-off will be debated at the Inter-Ministerial Group meeting before being taken to CCD.