BPCL disinvestment gets going with multiple EOIs, Reliance stays away

The long-awaited privatisation process for Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is finally moving to its second stage with at least three to four companies submitting expressions of interest (EoIs). The government had to extend the deadlines for submission of EoIs four times before setting the final deadline on Monday.

The sale is crucial for the government in order to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 trillion for the current fiscal year. The government has not revealed the number of bidders. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted that strategic divestment of BPCL has progressed to the second stage after multiple expressions of interest have been received. With this, the NDA government would be making its first privatisation in the petroleum sector after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government sold IPCL to Reliance Industries (RIL).