(PTI)
Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country’s biggest oil firm, will decide on bidding to buy Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) after the government lists out rules for the stake sale, its Chairman Sanjiv Singh said Thursday. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had on November 21, 2019 decided to sell government’s entire 53.29 per cent stake in country’s second-largest state refiner BPCL, but a tender for sale hasn’t yet been issued.
“The expression of interest (EoI) (for BPCL stake sale) hasn’t been issued yet. We don’t know the conditions. We have no information whether PSUs are allowed to bid or not,” Singh told reporters here. “I cannot comment if IOC will bid or not unless we see the conditions set out in the EoI.” He said a decision on the issue can only be taken once there is clarity on the bidding process the government intends to follow. Soon after the Cabinet decision, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had hinted that PSUs will be kept out of BPCL privatisation.
