No More Extension of BPCL Privatisation Bid Deadline: DIPAM Secretary

BPCL privatisation bid deadline will not be extended for the fifth time, as the government’s strategic disinvestment programme that was hit by the pandemic is back on track, DIPAM Secretary said Monday. The government had on four occasions extended the date of putting in the preliminary expression of interest for buying out the majority stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL). The current deadline is 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,” Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), told PTI. While the Cabinet, in November last year, had approved the sale of the government’s entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL, offers seeking expression of interest (EoI) or bids showing interest in buying its stake were invited only on March 7.