Indian government selling government’s stake in BPCL along with the shipping firm SCI.
In a big move, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the selling of the Indian government’s stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, shipping firm Shipping Corporation of India, and on land cargo mover Concor.
Apart from this the govt. also decided to cut shareholding in selected public sector companies below 51% to increase the revenue collections that have been affected due to the slowing down of the economy in the country but will continue to retain the management control.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the giving away of government’s whole 53.29% stake and the transfer of management control in India’s 2nd biggest state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd after the removal of Numaligarh refinery from its fold, as informed by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
This is not all, it has also approved the sale of the government’s complete 63.75% stake in Shipping Corporation of India and 30.9% stake in Container Corp of India (Concor).
This latest decision of the Indian government has not gone well with the citizens and the opposition.
Congress’ Randeep Surjewala in a tweet said,
“They did not create anything, but will sell everything. This is called selling the country. If there is Modi, it is possible.”
“My prediction, BPCL’s coveted network of petrol pumps will go to Reliance and Concor will go to Adani Group. Gujarati Syndicate all the way,”
wrote a user on Twitter after the announcement of the selling of BPCL.
Whereas, another user on Twitter expressed her thoughts and said,
“सब बेच दो !!! #BPCL had a net profit of Rs 7,802.30 crore in the year 2018-19. The company’s total CSR share for the year was Rs 177.94 crore. In Kerala alone, BPCL has spent a total of Rs 24.75 crore in various CSR initiatives with Rs 12.16 crore in the education sector alone.”
Privatization of BPCL will not just shake up the fuel retailing sector of India that was long dominated by state-owned firms but also help meet at least a 3 of the government’s Rs 1.05 lakh crore disinvestment target.
