Privatisation of the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is a huge part of the Centre's disinvestment plan. However, with just three months left in the current fiscal, it is unlikely that the Centre would be able to wrap up the privatisation in time.

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The sale process for BPCL has not progressed at the desired pace and the financial bids have not yet been called, a source familiar with the development told Livemint. The source further said that BPCL will need approval letters from its borrowers before the sale could proceed. This, in itself, may take a few months.

If the BPCL sale is delayed, it would be a big blow to the government's disinvestment target. The Centre had planned to raise Rs 60,000 crore or more from the sale of BPCL. This would have helped the government reach its disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 trillion for this fiscal (FY 2021-22). However, the likelihood of the government achieving its disinvestment target would completely depend on the performance of the public listing of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India if the sale of BPCL doesn't materialise this fiscal.

The central government -- which holds a 52.98 percent stake in the company -- had shared all BPCL data with the bidders in April last year. Among those in the fray to buy this majority stake in the BPCL are -- Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta group, private equity firm Apollo Global and I Squared Capital’s Think Gas arm.

According to the official privy to the development, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the investment climate for energy companies, which were already facing challenges due to volatile crude oil prices, forced the government to extend the deadline for preliminary expressions of interest for BPCL four times.

Initially, the government wished to call financial bids by August 2021, get the sale and purchase agreement signed by September 2021, and complete the deal by March 2022.

(Edited by : Anshul)