New Delhi: The government on February 5 said that it will divest its equity in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) during the next financial year and announced that IOC, which acquired petro retailer IBP Co Ltd, would be kept out of the process.

Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie told reporters after a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) that within three months of dismantling of administered pricing mechanism (APM) in the petroleum sector, scheduled for April 1, 2002, proposal for disinvestment in HPCL and BPCL would be brought.

Details of the proposal are yet to be worked out, he said.

Shourie said that IOC has been kept out of the privatisation of the two oil public sector understandings (PSUs) to ensure competition between public and private sector.

PTI