Bharat Petroleum & 4 Other PSUs Will Be Privatised: Biggest Disinvestment Drive In Last 20 Years!

This has been described as India’s biggest disinvestment drive ever: Govt. will sell its entire stake in 5 PSUs or Public Sector Units, and make them private.

Will this lead to better operations or Govt. is trying to give a strong message to the corporate sector?

Bharat Petroleum, & 4 Other PSUs Will Be Privatized

A high level group of secretaries on disinvestment have approved India’s biggest disinvestment drive since last 20 years.

Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Shipping Corp of India (SCI), THDC India and NEEPCO will be now privatized, as Govt. will sell its entire stake from these public sector companies.

Besides, Govt will also sell its 30% stake from Container Corp of India (Concor).

This way, 5 major PSUs will become private, in one single go.

For the disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum, Govt. will need approval from Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha, since this PSU was formed under an act passed by Parliament.

For the disinvestment of Shipping Corp of India, THDC India (which maintains Tehri Hydro Power Complex and other Hydro Projects), NEEPO (North Eastern Eletric Power Corporation Limited) and Concor, there is no need for approval from Parliament.

Here are the stake holding of Govt. in these PSUs:

Bharat Petroleum	53.29%
Concor	54.8%
Shipping Corp of India	63.75%
THDC	75:25 joint venture between the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government
NEEPCO	100%

Ever since Atal Bihari Bajpayee Govt. in 2000 initiated disinvestment drive, this is the biggest such move by any Govt. in India.

How Will Govt. Benefit From This Disinvestment Drive?

After selling its stake in Bharat Petroleum, Govt. will get Rs 54,055 crore in capital.

Via disinvestment in Concor, Govt. will receive Rs 11,051 crore, while Shipping Corp of India privatisation will fetch Rs 1,282 crore.

Overall, Rs 66,388 crore will be received by Govt., if the disinvestment drive goes as per the plan.

These numbers are based on the current stock market price of the shares of these PSUs.

Note here, that THDC and NEEPCO are unlisted PSUs, and as per some reports, these two firms can be handed over to NHPC and NTPC respectively.

But no confirmation has been provided as of now.

Govt. aims to collect Rs 1.05 lakh crore from this current disinvestment drive, and so far, it has managed to fetch only Rs 12,357 crore.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman have already mentioned in the budget that Govt. will aim to bring down its stake in all major PSUs to below 51%.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in. 

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