BPCL setback: Govt to push asset sales
NEW DELHI: The Centre is set to give a fresh push to its privatisation drive after facing a setback over the sale of state-run oil refiner BPCL and will make a renewed bid to complete the transactions of a clutch of companies in the current fiscal year.
Senior officials said Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), defence PSU BEML, engineering consulting firm PDIL and the Nagarnar steel plant of the country’s largest iron ore producer NMDC are among the companies where the Centre hopes to accelerate the privatisation process and complete the transactions.
Plans are also on the anvil to give a fresh push to the privatisation of a state-run bank and perhaps a state-run insurance company, the process for which had been delayed due to a raft of factors, including the Covid pandemic.
The officials said the approval for demerger of SCI was expected anytime soon, and the process for moving ahead with the sale would be stepped up. “The review of the sale process has been undertaken and once the demerger approval comes through, we expect to proceed,” said an official.
