Taking forward its plan to exit sick public sector undertakings and dilute its stake in the not-so-profitable ones, the government on Wednesday decided to sell its stake in Bharat Pumps and Compressors and to close the terminally sick Hindustan Cables.

The last time a strategic disinvestment took place was in 2003-04, when Hindustan Zinc and Jessop and Co were sold.

The Cabinet also cleared a ₹4,777-crore package for Hindustan Cables to enable it to pay salaries, implement early retirement schemes and convert government loan into equity.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a Department of Heavy Industry proposal for a ₹111.59-crore Non-Plan loan to Bharat Pumps, an official release said.

In another decision to enable the roll-out of GST (goods and services tax), the CCEA has approved a new indirect tax network for systems integration with the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

‘Project Saksham’ will entail a cost of ₹2,256 crore over seven years.

Under the project, CBEC’s existing IT systems will be integrated with the GST Network, which is a requirement for processing of registration, payment and returns data sent by the GSTN systems to CBEC.

Stake in foreign oil firms Further, the CCEA also approved a proposal for Oil India, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petro Resources to acquire 23.9 per cent in JSC Vankorneft for $2 billion and 29.9 per cent in LLC Taas-Yuryakh for $1.24 billion from Russia’s national oil company Rosneft.

The acquisition will give Indian companies 8.06 million tonne of oil equivalent annually from 2019.

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