Bharat Petroleum Is Promoting Officers, Managers Before Sell-Off To Private Company: But Why?

Ahead of privatization, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has promoted officers.

Officers who were deputy general manager were promoted to general managers, general managers were made chief general managers while chief general managers were made executive directors.

Ahead of privatization, in what seems to be a departure from general practice, the state-run oil company has promoted 64 officers. These include eight as executive directors.

Promotions & Transfers:-

Human Resources Department on December 30, 2020 issued an office note and according to it the promotion is a part of a list of 225 officers. Some of these officers are also transferred.  These promotions as well as transfers took effect from January 1. These tasks earlier, for many years, have been carried out in March and took effect from 1 April.

Soon, a second list of promotions is expected from managers to senior managers, those from senior managers to chief managers and from chief managers to deputy general managers.

Indicating why the promotions were offered earlier this time to the officers, a source said that it was because promotions may not happen immediately after privatization.

The oil refining and marketing company did not respond to an email seeking comment.

However, after two months of issuing notifications in this regard, BPCL has put on hold promotions of general workmen, two months after notification was issued in this regard.

Some general workers who are in the current post for more than three year period. A source said that these workers despite being eligible for the promotion have not been interviewed for the grade up.

Govt Plans To Sell Its 52.98% Stake

BPCL is India’s second largest fuel retailer as well as third biggest oil refiner and the process of its privatization has been initiated by the government. The government plans to sell its 52.98 per cent stake to a strategic buyer.

Expressions of interest to buy the stake of government in BPCL has already been filled by private equity firms Apollo Global Management Inc and I Squared Capital as well as Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd.