(PTI)
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) may buy 26 percent stake each in gas utility GAIL India Ltd, paying the government over Rs 20,000 crore each to become integrated energy firms.
Following Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s February 2017 Budget announcement of creating integrated oil majors, IOC and BPCL had submitted separate proposals to buy the government’s 54.89 percent stake in India’s biggest gas marketing and transportation firm, GAIL.
A top source said since the government is not looking at actual merger of oil companies but only transfer of its ownership to a cash rich PSU, the best option would be to split the 54.89 percent holding in GAIL equally between IOC and BPCL.
