IOC asked to give written proposal to buy stake in PSUs

The government had asked Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to submit its proposal to buy a stake in public sector oil undertakings, HPCL and BPCL, whose disinvestment has been halted by a Supreme Court verdict, Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said on Saturday.

‘‘A proposal should be made by the board… I have told the IOC chairman to prepare his argument properly, present it to the ministry. We will look into it,’’ Naik said after inaugurating the ‘Mangalore-Hassan-Bangalore’ petroleum product pipeline at Devangonthi on the outskirts of Bangalore. Naik reiterated that the government had three proposals, including evolving a consensus among political parties and getting Parliament to clear the disinvestment of the two oil majors, besides selling a part of the 82 per cent government’s stake in IOC.