NRL to not be privatised; will remain under Government control

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday stated that the Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) located in Golaghat will not be privatised but remain under government control. The decision which was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed by all sections of the society. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal appreciated the decision and expressed his regards to the PM and FM for upholding the aspirations of the people of Assam.

The Central Government last month invited top global oil and gas companies to bid for its stake in the Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) along with other PSUs and the private disinvestment of NRL. BPCL is the largest shareholder of the refinery holding 61.65% shares of NRL. After this decision, Assam saw massive protests by different sections and organizations. Seeing this, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal sent a letter to the Central Government stating the after-effects of NRL privatization and that NRL moving to the private companies would cause great harm to the employees. This led the Central Government to waive off the disinvestment of the refinery.

The BPCL will be strategically disinvested along with the Shipping Corp of India, the Concor and the THDCIL. NRL will be carved out of the BPCL before the privatization of BPCL and will be controlled by another public sector company. the government is aiming to sell the entire 53.29% stake of BPCL to a potential investor to meet the disinvestment target of Rs. 1.05 trillion for the current fiscal year.

Also read:NRL was not given to Assam, it is a yield of the Assam Accord: Lurinjyoti Gogoi

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