Nearly 12000 employees of the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) may draw strength from the employee unions of other state-run entities including Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Indian Railways, MTNL and BSNL if the government does not shelve its plans to privatise BPCL, said company employees. Thousands of workers of BPCL have decided to go on strike on Thursday to protest the government’s decision to privatise the company.
“If the government does not reconsider its decision on BPCL’s privatisation, we would be joined by employees of other oil companies in our strike which will go on for multiple days,” said Praveen Kumar P, general secretary of Cochin Refineries Employees Association, an affiliate of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).
BPCL spokesperson said, ” BPCL employee unions have given a strike notice that they plan to observe a day’s strike on November 28. All efforts are made to ensure that the refineries and marketing locations to be running normally.”
As on 31, March 2019, BPCL had a total number of permanent employees at 11,971. The total number of employees hired on temporary/contractual/casual basis at BPCL stood at 22,267.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had on November 20 given a go-ahead for sale of government’s entire stake in BPCL, along with other companies. As part of the stake sale process, first, potential bidders will have to submit an expression of interest (EoI) and after due diligence be asked to submit price bids. The government has set a 50-day deadline for an outside ‘asset valuer’ to carry out the valuation of all assets of BPCL.
The privatization of BPCL is expected to attract global energy majors given that India is the world’s fastest-growing major oil market. The proceeds from the sale will also be crucial for the government to contain its fiscal deficit amid lower-than-expected goods and services tax collections and a corporate tax cut that will cost the exchequer Rs1.45 trillion. The government plans to sell its 53.3% stake in the company which may fetch Rs 60,000 crore.
“We feel cheated by the government now. We had joined BPCL on the security of a government job but with privatisation, our livelihoods are threatened. We are protesting for our rights,” said an employee from BPCL on the condition of anonymity.
BPCL was nationalized in 1976 by an Act of Parliament after being set up in the 1920s as Burmah Shell, an alliance between Royal Dutch Shell and Burmah Oil Co and Asiatic Petroleum (India). This is not the first time that a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has mooted the privatization of BPCL.
A similar attempt in 2003 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was scuttled by the Supreme Court, which had then ruled that the privatization required parliamentary approval. The Narendra Modi government which enjoys a majority has repealed the legislation, clearing the way for the stake sale. The government had earlier sold its stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd to state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd at a roughly 18% premium to prevailing prices. Analysts say the premium can be much higher in the case of privatization.
