Opposition parties and key Bharatiya Janata Party allies -- Shiv Sena and Samata Party -- kicked up a row on Wednesday in Lok Sabha over the proposed divestment of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.
They demanded Attorney General of India Soli J Sorabjee to be summoned before the House after the reply by Divestment Minister Arun Shourie that the attorney general had said that parliamentary legislation, sanction or approval was not necessary to for the "in principle" policy decision of divestment in these undertakings.
Rashtriya Janata Dal member Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said, "We demand that the attorney general be summoned to the House." Supporting Singh, Congress deputy leader Shivraj Patil
Said, "We would like to hear the attorney general on the floor of the House. Is the government agreeable to the attorney general to appear before the House and give his opinion, which he had given on divestment in HPCL and BPCL?"
Sena's Chandrakant Khaire said, "We are directly opposing this move. Why are you selling profitable companies like HPCL and BPCL? We will not accept it." Raghunath Jha of the Samata Party, who too opposed the decision of the government, joined him.
Telugu Desam Party member M V V S Murthy wanted to know whether the inter-ministerial tussle over the issue had been cleared, and what was the benchmark norm approved by the
Cabinet Committee on Divestment in these two companies. Shourie replied that the decision in the CCD was taken after thorough discussion and that the concerned administrative machinery was also consulted in such matters. "It was a unanimous decision taken after one year of discussion and the petroleum minister (Ram Naik) was part of it," he said.
The minister said no consultants have so far been appointed for the divestment in HPCL and BPCL. But he added that the process of the appointment of global adviser for HPCL and global coordinators for BPCL was under progress.
Shourie said the oil sector PSUs, including ONGC, have not been allowed to participate in the bidding of HPCL as it is the general policy of the government not to allow one PSU to bid for other PSU.
The primary rationale behind this was that the objective of divestment was to put national assets to optimal use and to maximise the productive potential inherent in public sector and ownership of one PSU by another PSU defeats that objective, he said.
At this point Shivraj Patil said oil units were nationalised after the 1971 Indo-Pakistan conflict as it was felt that if privatised it would endanger national security.
Shourie hit back saying "The war was in 1971 and it was only after four to five years later that the oil companies were nationalised."
The minister said the government has decided to divest 34.01 per cent equity in HPCL through strategic sale and 35.20 per cent equity in BPCL through public offer in the domestic and international market.
In addition, he said, it has been decided to offer five per cent equity shares in both the companies, through Employees Stock Purchase Scheme to the employees of both the companies.
