January 19, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 15, 1423

NEW DELHI, Jan 18: The keenly awaited privatization of two Indian oil refiners, delayed by differences among lawmakers, could take another six to seven months to complete, a top government official said on Saturday.

But the initial public offering of shares in the country’s biggest carmaker may be wrapped up before the end of this financial year ending in March, he added.

India’s disinvestment programme was jolted last month by a government decision to delay selling stakes in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and ask for a legal opinion on their sale.

It requested Attorney General Soli Sorabjee’s views after the opposition demanded the government seek parliamentary approval of its plans to sell HPCL and BPCL on grounds both companies had been nationalised by parliament.

The Attorney General is expected to submit his opinion on Monday.

The process of disinvestment in HPCL and BPCL will take at least six to seven months after we receive the permission for the sale, Pradip Baijal, the Disinvestment Ministry’s top bureaucrat told the Hindi language Aaj Tak television news channel.

But he said the government hoped to complete the share IPO of Maruti Udyog Ltd before the end of March.

I hope that we will be able to sell the shares of Maruti this (financial) year. If we are able to do that we will be able to get about Rs10 billion, Baijal said.

The government holds a 45.54 per cent stake in Maruti and plans to sell 20 per cent of the carmaker’s stake to the public. Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp holds 54.2pc stake in Maruti, which has a commanding 50 per cent share of the domestic market.

There are small problems relating to the disinvestment of the other companies — Shipping Corporation of India, State Trading Corporation, Hindustan Organic Chemicals — and so I don’t think that before March 31, apart from Maruti’s public issue, we would be able to complete any other sale.

The government had aimed to raise $2.5 billion through stake sales in state firms in the year to March 2003 but now says it will fall way short of the target after the delay in the sale of the two oil companies.

India’s 12-year-old privatization programme has been dogged by political and labour opposition.

It has about 232 companies owned by the federal government, almost half of them loss-making, producing everything from condoms to steel with a collective net worth of $33 billion. —Reuters