Published by – Pallavi Saikia
Recently news got viral on social media that Numaligarh Refinery is heading towards privatization. It has been seen that the news of privatization has gone viral in every social media platform creating agitation among people.
CLAIM: Few people on Facebook claims that after privatization of Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Government has taken now another wrong decision to privatize Numaligarh Refinery.
However, later it was found that the story was misleading with some confusion.
INVESTIGATION: To recheck the matter Headline8 connected to senior officials of Oil India Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited. Talking to the officials (whose names cannot be mentioned), said that the news has been mislead to all the public.
“The actual news was business related and very soon we will issue the matter publicly. As of now according to the ECI we can’t give any statement on this matter as Mode of Conduct is underway.”
A statement issued by NRL to Headline8, “The equity shareholding of BPCL in the share capital of NRL has been sold. It has been sold to Oil India Ltd, Engineers India Ltd, and partially to the Government of Assam. Both these 2 shareholders are Public Sector Undertaking and NRL will remain in the Public Sector (Rajohua Khondo Udyog) and is not being planned to be privatized.
You may be aware that BPCL which held a majority stake of 61.65% in NRL is on the road to privatization. Keeping in view the sentiments of the people of Assam and demands raised by various quarters, the Union Govt. decided to carve out NRL from BPCL to retain its PSU Status. In line with the above, a consortium of OIL and EIL – both Public Sector Companies have taken over BPCL’s share and at the same time the stake of Govt. of Assam in NRL is also enhanced.”
In Second step of ours investigation we took help from Google search, Google reverse image, official twitter handles of Oil India Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited.
After going in the depth of details, we got to know that OIL bought 54.16 percent stake to raise its shareholding in the refinery to 80.16 percent, the company said in stock exchange filings. Its partner, Engineers India Ltd (EIL) had bought 4.4 percent stake and the balance 3.2 percent was acquired by Government of Assam (GoA).
The privatization process of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), the state-run energy major has sold its entire 61.5 percent in Numaligarh Refinery in Assam.
The privatization-bound company has sold its stake to a consortium of Oil India Ltd. (OIL) and Engineers India and Government of Assam for nearly Rs. 9,876 crore.
Oil India acquired over Rs. 39.84 crore shares or 54.16 percent stake in NRL. Post this acquisition, OIL’s cumulative equity shareholding in NRL (including pre-acquisition 26 per cent shareholding) is 80.16 percent.
Engineers India Limited (EIL) which is also a party to the deal has independently acquired over 3.21 crore equity shares or 4.4 per cent of NRL from BPCL.
The BPCL stated that the remaining Rs. 2.29 crore equity shares have been transferred to the Government of Assam on receipt of consideration of nearly Rs. 500 crore. The shares transferred to the state government accounts for 3.2 percent of BPCL’s stake adding to the Assam government’s existing shareholding of 12.35 percent.
A Sale Purchase Agreement has been signed on 25th March 2021 between BPCL and the consortium of Oil India Limited (OIL) and Engineers India Limited (EIL) for sale of equity shares of Rs 10/- each held by BPCL in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd.
The development comes after the board of BPCL earlier this month approved the proposal for sale of the company’s equity shares in the Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL) to a consortium of Oil India Limited and Engineers India Limited, along with the government of Assam.
NRL has been carved out from the BPCL and is not part of the assets which are being sold as part of its privatization plan.
The profit-making state-run company is up for sale as the government is selling its entire 52.98 percent stake in the company, which may turn out to be the largest privatization in India.
Photo Credit: Google