Hyderabad: Government today (Jan 12, 2004) said the decision on the timing of Gas Authority of India (GAIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) public issues would be clear by the middle of February, while exuding confidence that both the issues would be completed during this fiscal.

"I think by the middle of February, it will be clear. By then, other residual stake sales would have gone through. We would know the market conditions," Disinvestment and Information Technology Minister Arun Shourie said on the sidelines of the Asian IT Ministers' summit in Hyderabad.

Government has lined up public offers for sale of residual stake in Indo-Burma Petroleum (IBP), Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL) and Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC), besides a public float for the Dredging Corporation.

To a query whether the allotment of shares to retail investors in these two initial public offerings (IPOs) would be done in the same manner as was done in Maruti, he said, "No decision has been taken as yet. It will only be decided when we see the response."

"In Maruti, the proportion of sale to retail and small investors, institutional investors, as well as the cut-off price and discount were decided just two hours before I announced them in a conference from Thailand. The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) had decided that the Finance Minister and I should settle it at the end," he said.

"I am sure that is what has to be done now. May be the Finance Minister, Law Minister, Petroleum Minister and I should decide," he added.

Last week, the inter-ministerial group on disinvestment of GAIL and ONGC favoured hitting the market in late February and early March with public offer of ten per cent government equity in the two oil public sector undertakings (PSUs).