No Buyers for BPCL; ONGC and BHEL Already Turned the Offer Down


BENGALURU: BPCL is among those PSU which have been asked to put on the block by the central govt. Recently, O P Tiwari and his team swarmed into the capital in a hope to convince these two giants of the to take over the company. Mr. Tiwari is president of the employees union of Bharat Pumps & Compressors (BPCL), Naini (in UP).

However, the offer was swiftly turned down, only promising to check over. The ONGC CMD, D K Sarraf, briefed Bharat Pumps union representatives that the oil sector was abiding a rough status quo, while Bhel’s director Akhil Joshi suggested upon the engineering firm’s own hard luck.

Recalling what happened two decades ago, Bhel had turned down the similar proposal from BPCL. “Bhel had then said that BPCL was over-staffed, but things have changed now,” said Tiwari. The headcount is down to 474 from around 1,800 employees, and counting may go less than half the current due to the retirement of many officials in couple of years. The company hasn’t witnessed any full-time CEO since years.

The company never had a smooth sailing since its set up in 1970. Union representatives acknowledge the over-staffing from the beginning which, resulted in prolonged financial pressure. UPA, in 2006, offered a fresh package to the company, including writing off losses and securing of loans from ONGC and Bhel. This did help BPCL to make a comeback but only for a few years. It again slipped into losses from 2012-13. Estimated loss for the last financial year was around 56 crore.

The company is facing trouble in paying statutory dues, such as gratuity, and leave encashment to retired personals and other dues. Nonetheless, the Cabinet has decided to provide an assistance of around 111 crore and ensuring the plan for its strategic sale. The government positively wants to keep off from gushing money into BPCL despite the union’s request.

Two weeks ago the central government had proposed to shut down 15 loss-making PSUs. NITI Aayog has identified another half-a-dozen sick public sector companies that required immediate closure. However, in an effort to protect their turf, frenzied lobbying by ministries has become a can of worms for officials.

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