BPCL privatisation: Govt may allow 100% FDI in divested refiners

This is an enabling provision required for privatisation of BPCL

The Union government is likely to allow full ownership of public sector refiners by foreign entities. Though this is an enabling provision required for the disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), it potentially means all public sector refiners, except a “bare minimum” (which can be even one), may have complete foreign ownership.

The government is yet to decide the minimum number of public sector enterprises (PSEs) for strategic sectors that it identified in February this year. The changes in the FDI regime are likely to be for the entire refining sector, similar to the exemption given in 2017 to all mergers