The divestment ministry is now all set to flag off the process of divestment in Bharat Petroleum Corporation with the Inter-Ministerial Group scheduled to meet on February 13.
Attorney General Soli Sorabjee has said the sale of stakes in two state-run oil refiners does not need parliamentary approval.
Divestment Minister Arun Shourie said on Tuesday that his ministry had furnished all the facts to Attorney General for getting his opinion on the legal aspects of privatising public sector oil company, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.
Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee's response on the privatisation of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is likely to be known later this week.
A day ahead of a crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment, Defence Minister George Fernandes said he favoured public sector units like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to be allowed to bid for HPCL.
Differences between ministries of divestment and petroleum are likely to surface at Fridays meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment as the former is believed to have proposed keeping public sector units.
Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said Tuesday the SEBI has initiated an investigation into the fall of share prices of BPCL and HPCL.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation approached the petroleum ministry on Thursday with an initial proposal for permission to bid for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation as and when the government decides to offer its stake in the PSU.
Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said on Wednesday that he would forward to the Cabinet Committee on Divestment the proposals from public sector units under his ministry to bid for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd after examining individual proposals.
Divestment Minister Arun Shourie will soon make a statement on stake sales in two state-run oil firms following a consensus reached on the issue by a group of top ministers.
Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each on Saturday, the fourth increase in five days as oil firms passed on to consumers the spike in cost of raw material. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 98.61 per litre as against Rs 97.81 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 89.07 per litre to Rs 89.87, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers. All the four increases since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22, have been of 80 paise a litre.
The post fell vacant after incumbent Prasad Dasgupta took early retirement. Dasgupta's five-year term was to come to an end on August 31 and he was eligible for a two-year extension till he attained superannuation at the age of 65 in 2012.
S Rajendra Babu, a Supreme Court judge, was on Thursday appointed the Chief Justice of India with effect from May 2.
Companies are ranked by total revenues.
The government is planning a moderate hike of Rs 1-1.50 per litre in the prices of petrol and diesel in view of the rising global crude tags.
Afraid of US sanctions, State Bank declines payment facilitation for oil imports from Iran.
Public sector oil retailing firms have lost over Rs 5,800 crore in the first six weeks of current fiscal due to non-revision of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene prices.
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Thursday termed as an "obstacle" the Supreme Court ruling halting the privatisation of oil firms HPCL and BPCL and said the government will "manoeuvre" it to keep the momentum of divestment programme.
ONGC will submit a proposal to the Union government for acquiring Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd's entire 16.97% stake in Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd at Rs 37.75 per share even though HPCL is not keen to divest its holding.
Petrol and diesel prices were cut by Rs 2 per litre each as state-owned oil companies ended a nearly two-year-long hiatus in rate revision, just hours before the general election schedule was announced.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation has proposed to shed about 11 per cent of its workforce by offering the surplus staff a VRS, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
HPCL is the largest supplier of jet fuel to Kingfisher.
Oil major ONGC is believed to have been kept out of the bidding process for the two oil PSUs.
HPCL is Kingfisher Airline's largest aviation turbine fuel supplier.
The government has been able to mobilise Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 30-35 billion) by way of divestment during the first nine months of the current financial year, Divestment Minister, Arun Shourie.
State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp has offered to take Hindustan Petroleum Corp as equal partner in the Rs 6,354 crore (Rs 63.54 billion) Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh.
Petrol and diesel prices are likely to go up by at least Rs 2 per litre after the Lok Sabha polls, once the current freeze on revising prices in step with the cost of the raw material -- crude oil -- is lifted.
In 13 hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 7.11 per litre and diesel by Rs 7.67 a litre.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd will invest Rs 1,040 crore (Rs 10.40 billion) in 2004-05 in its refineries and pipeline projects to attain organic growth, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.
The cut reflects changes in global prices of the two fuels since the last revision.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is to set up three liquefied petroleum gas bottling plants with an investment of Rs 55 crore (Rs 550 million) even as it plans to introduce the 5-kg LPG cylinders in the urban areas.
Petroleum and oil marketing companies raised the price of commercial liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders by Rs 350.50 per unit and domestic LPG cylinders by Rs 50 per unit with immediate effect from Wednesday.
An HPCL-led consortium had put the project on hold in 2009.
