Air India, Bharat Petroleum to Be Sold by March: FM Sitharaman

FM Nirmala Sitharaman. 

(Photo: PTI)

The government is planning to wrap up the sale of the two state-owned debt-ridden companies Air India and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) by March next year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Times of India, in an interview published on Sunday, 17 November.

"We are moving on both with the expectation that we can complete them this year. The ground realities will play out," Sitharaman was quoted as saying.

The Finance Minister said that there is a “lot of interest” among investors for the sale of Air India.

The strategic disinvestment of the two state-run companies is critical for the government to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1 trillion for the current fiscal year, Sitharaman added.

The government had to abort the stake sale of of the loss-making carrier after a lukewarm response from investors.

In order to offload 76 percent stake and management control in the airline, the government had floated the Expression of Interest (EOI). However, it had failed to get even a single bidder.

The government took measures to reverse the economic slowdown at the right time and several sectors are coming out of distress, TOI quoted Sitharaman as saying.

Sitharaman said she expected the GST to revive collections on the back of an improvement in sales in some segments.

Further, the FM said the industry captains had helped improve their balance sheets and several players were mulling fresh investments.

(With inputs from Times of India.)