The Hindu Business Line : IOC split among the three options mooted for sell-off

THE Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) on Friday mooted an ingenious solution to the vexed issue of disinvestment of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, following the Supreme Court halting the sell-off.

The Supreme Court has insisted on the Centre seeking Parliamentary approval for the privatisation of the companies, since they were conceived through Acts of nationalisation.

As one of the three alternatives, the Centre is now planning to pursue an option that emanates from the `freedom' that the Supreme Court judgment has given the executive.

The judgment does not prohibit sale of companies that are not nationalised through Acts of Parliament - hence, Indian Oil Corporation, which has 52 per cent of the marketing network, can be appropriately broken up and sold instead of HPCL and BPCL which together hold the rest.

"IOC was not constituted through an Act of Parliament. The Petroleum Ministry and the Ministry of Disinvestment will sit together and decide the portions that should be merged with HPCL and BPCL and that which can be sold," the Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, told newspersons here.

"The options in this regard have to be worked out. Once the non-saleable parts of IOC are isolated or merged with HPCL/BPCL, IOC can be split into two parts and sold off - one to a strategic partner and another to the public," he said.

The other two options would be, one, to consult the Opposition for `appropriate' legislation to sell off the two companies and second, to consider various legal options. "The Ministry of Disinvestment has been authorised to take appropriate steps in this direction in consultation with the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and the Law Ministry," Mr Shourie said.

Queried on the priority of the options, Mr Shourie said that all the three would be pursued with equal priority. "The Cabinet has sanctioned a period of three months to work out the options," Mr Shourie said.

The CCD also cleared the sale purchase agreements of Engineers India Ltd and Balmer Lawrie. It also approved payment of dividend of Rs 280 crore by EIL as part of the sell off package.

In the case of State Trading Corporation, the Cabinet approved reduction of Government holding from 91.02 per cent to 26 per cent. It also approved privatisation of Tide Water Oil Company (27.7 per cent sale), Hoogly Printing (100 per cent) and Hindustan Newsprint (74 per cent).

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