The crunch in tax revenues as a result of the pandemic has made privatisation an imperative rather than just a strategy for the Narendra Modi government. At the forefront of this move are Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Air India. Unlike the latter, the oil refining and marketing major is a revenue churner for the government rather than a drain on its finances. Nonetheless, the Union finance ministry’s silence around the submission of expressions of interest (EoIs) for BPCL casts doubts on whether the interested parties are good enough for handing over a public jewel.
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