The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition challenging the government's decision to divest equity in the oil public sector units HPCL and BPCL as the findings of the Supreme Court relating to privatisation of Balco came in its way.
SBI Capital Markets Limited, the merchant banking arm of SBI, is eyeing the twin accounts of HPCL and BPCL for managing the divestment programmes of the 2 oil cos.
India's minister for privatisation on Friday said a much-awaited stake sale in state-run refiners Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited could go ahead as soon as the prime minister gave his approval.
Prakash Rohra, 54 shares his story.
Divesment Minister Arun Shourie said on Tuesday he had apprised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about the Attorney General Soli Sorabjee's opinion on privatisation of HPCL, BPCL.
The attorney-general is understood to have said that the government need not go to Parliament prior to privatisation of the oil PSUs.
Faulty laws helped oil majors IOC, HPCL and BPCL -- to avoid excise payment of Rs 713 crore (Rs 7.13 billion) to the government during April-December 2002, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has said.
Attorney General Soli Sorabjee is likely to give by Friday his opinion on legal aspects of divestment of oil PSUs HPCL and BPCL, which were nationalised through Acts of Parliament.
The Cabinet Committee on Divestment failed to take any decision on the divestment of public sector oil companies -- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.
Arun Shourie, Union Minister for Divestment, said that the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment would discuss the sell-off modalities of HPCL and BPCL.
Labour unions on Monday threatened to go on a lightning strike the day government invited bids for privatising highly profitable oil public sector units HPCL and BPCL.\n\n\n\n
Contrary to popular perception of public sector oil firms making huge profits on selling petrol and diesel by gold plating the cost, Indian firms have second lowest refinery and marketing margins - profits - in the world.
Bowing to pressure from the opposition, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie on Tuesday assured the Rajya Sabha that he would seek an opinion from Attorney General Soli Sorabjee on the legality of the sell-off of HPCL and BPCL.
State-run oil marketing companies on Monday raised the security deposit for new cooking gas (LPG) connections to Rs 1,250 from the existing Rs 850 per cylinder, as also the price of cylinder regulator due to increase in input costs.
IndianOil Corp Ltd, for instance, saw a growth of around 22 per cent in volumes and nearly two per cent in its market share. It traded nearly 10,517 million tonnes (mt) of auto gas in December against 8,593 mt of auto gas in September.
The cut reflects changes in global prices of the two fuels since the last revision.
Petrol price on Sunday was hiked by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise, taking the total increase in rates since resumption of daily price revision less than a week back to Rs 3.70-3.75 per litre. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.11 per litre as against Rs 98.61 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 89.87 per litre to Rs 90.42, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
The divestment ministry would concentrate on "legal option" to resolve the divestment impasse arising out of the Supreme Court verdict on HPCL and BPCL, but would continue with residual stake sale plans in companies like CMC Ltd and VSNL.
Sri Lanka on Monday put off indefinitely a decision to sell off part of the state-run oil company to Bharat Petroleum as trade unions threatened to stop work, triggering panic buying at petrol stations across the country.
India's only private sector oil refiner, Reliance Industries, has sought a two-year extension of its agreement with Indian Oil Corp to sell Jamnagar refinery products through the state-run firm's retail network.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Monday said last week's Supreme Court ruling halting the privatisation of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd was a "setback", but hoped that a solution will emerge soon.
M A Pathan, former chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation, on Friday resigned as chief of the Petroleum Federation of India, citing his pre-occupation with Tatas and other multinational oil firms.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the group's biggest cash generator, overtook Vedanta to become the highest dividend payer in India in FY23. The IT services major paid Rs 42,090 crore for FY23, up 167.4 per cent from Rs 15,738 crore for FY22. The 10 biggest payers together shelled out Rs 2.06 trillion for FY23, more than double the Rs 98,371 crore for FY22.
The official, who did not wish to be identified, said the government will wrap up the stake sale in HPCL by November.\n\n
The multinational oil firm, however, is required to furnish a Rs 500 crore bank guarantee to the government.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a Public Interest Litigation challenging the legality of the government's decision to privatise public sector oil firms Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.
Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation have backed out of Gail's Vizag-Secunderabad LPG pipeline.
Shell India, the domestic arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, had offered for sale 20 of its 80 operational retail outlets and around 20 sites acquired earlier for setting up such outlets.
The government will complete the sale of cash-rich oil refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation in six to eight months, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie said on Wednesday.
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