New Delhi: Now that the government has announced that Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) will continue to be a public sector company, the transfer of management control is likely to be handed over to either Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) or Oil India Ltd (OIL). This was also one of the main demands made by protesting employees of NRL and student groups and general public of Assam who took part in the agitation.
In a statement released on November 20, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which gave its nod to the disinvestment of five PSUs, said, "Strategic disinvestment of BPCL's shareholding of 61.65 percent in NRL along with transfer of management control to a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) operating in the oil and gas sector."
BPCL owns 61.65 percent stake in Numaligarh Refinery, while Oil India Ltd (OIL) has 26 percent stake. The government of Assam has 12.35 percent stake in NRL. At the end of financial year 2018-19, NRL's earnings per share (EPS) stood at Rs 27.79 and its net worth was at Rs 5,551 crores. In FY2018-19, NRL also posted its highest-ever revenue at Rs 18,511 crores, registering a growth of 16.25 percent. The company had then said that its contribution to the Central and state exchequers in the form of taxes, duties and dividends stood at Rs 4,159 crores.
Numaligarh Refinery was born out of an accord signed between the Central government and All Assam Students' Union in 1985. The accord had marked an end to a six-year-long bloody anti-immigrants' agitation in the North-eastern state.
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