BPCL bid submission deadline will not be extended for a 5th time: DIPAM Secretary

• The government has so far extended the deadline for the submission of EoI for BPCL sale four times in the wake of requests received from bidders

• The disinvestment of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) will be completed before the closing of BPCL privatisation process

New Delhi: Indicating the government's readiness to proceed with the privatisation of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary, has said that the bid submission deadline for the oil marketing company (OMC) will not be extended for a fifth time. The government has so far extended the deadline for the submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) for BPCL sale four times in the wake of requests received from bidders. The current deadline expires on November 16.

"We had a serious COVID impact on strategic disinvestment, investors asked for time, particularly with respect to key transactions. I hope that further extensions may not be there, especially in BPCL where the current date is November 16. So hopefully, we will be able to move through," said Pandey on Monday.

The backdrop

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the sale of BPCL in November last year. The number of shares that the government is looking to sell off stands at 1,14,91,83,592, DIPAM had said in a clarification to queries raised by bidders. The disinvestment of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) will be completed before the closing of BPCL privatisation process, DIPAM had said. NRL is to be acquired by a consortium of Oil India Ltd (OIL) and Engineers India Limited, OIL Director (Finance) Harish Madhav had said in July earlier this year.

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The Centre has been keen on completing the process before the close of FY2020-21 since the deal would contribute a big chunk of funds to the overall disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 lakh crore. DIPAM has managed to raise only Rs 5,695.63 crore from disinvestment so far. 

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