New govt not in favour to sell stake in OMCs, says Oil Minister Puri
The Centre is not in favour of divesting the government's stake in oil marketing companies, said Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday.
In addition, the Centre will make efforts to bring petrol, diesel and natural gas under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST), ETNow cited Puri as saying, as he assumed charge in the new cabinet on Tuesday.
Development around stake sale in OMCs comes after the government scrapped the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) divestment process in 2022 as there was just one bidder left in the fray after the two others dropped out due to their inability to tie up funds for the acquisition.
The Indian firms are also in talks for term oil deal with Russia, he said.
Shares of BPCL, HPCL and IOCL spiked briefly following the minister's comments to recover their losses for the day before paring their gains. BPCL, HPCL and IOCL were trading with gains of around 0.5 per cent, 0.8 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively as of 1:20 pm.
