No plan to handover
IOC pumps: Shourie
New Delhi: Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie on October 6 said he has not made any proposal to sell
Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) 4,800 petrol pumps to Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat
Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) as part of efforts to divest IOC's retail marketing outlets.
"No proposal has gone from me or through me to this effect," Shourie told reporters commenting on
reports that his Ministry had proposed to divest retail outlets of India's only Fortune 500 company.
It was reported that Petroleum Ministry was working on a Cabinet note for selling government's 20 per
cent equity in IOC in the capital market to fetch about Rs 8,000 crore as an alternate to the proposed
hiving off IOC's retail business.
It may be noted that after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment on October 3, Shourie
had said that one of the options being considered by the government was to split IOC into two or three
and divest retail business of IOC.
PTI